Discussion & Questioning

Questioning & Discussion strategies and techniques are some of the fastest ways to assess your students. As teachers, we want to make sure that students are retaining information, using industry-specific vocabulary, and using concepts to solve problems. Students being able to verbally express themselves is evidence that your instructional strategies and techniques are working.

How your questions are phrased, your timing, or how you start your discussions can determine how well your assessment goes in developing transitions in lessons.

Questioning

Everyone knows the scenario where a teacher stops to ask questions during a lesson. Some students answer, and some don't. How can we get students to answer questions? How should we frame and phrase our questions to get more students involved?

1. Be concise, including only one idea.

2. Be consistent with questioning. Do it often so students know it's coming and it's part of your routine.

3. Be stated to require more than a simple yes or no answer.

4. Be stated in such a way that it does not suggest the answer.

5. Be short enough for students to remember.

6. Some questions might have more than one 'right' answer. It's also OK to ask affective (feeling/opinion/value) questions.

7. Be timely, interesting, thought-provoking, and relevant to the lesson being taught.

8. Be stated to stress the key points of a major lesson topic.

9. Be stated to require more than a guessing response.

Video Tutorials on Oral Questioning

Questioning in combination with Bloom's Taxonomy