Student-Directed Questioning

My students’ questions aren’t addressing points I (or my course head) think are important. It is possible that the concerns that are at the forefront of students’ minds, or the concerns that students feel comfortable sharing, miss materials or topics you (or your course head) believe needs to be discussed.

• Combine Student-Led Questioning with other strategies. Remember that you don’t need to stick to only one kind of strategy. Consider, for example, combining student-directed and teacher-directed questions. This way you (as the teacher) can raise any questions you feel student’s miss.

• Use relevant student questions as a springboard. If a student’s question relates to a key issue, but fails to directly address it, take time in discussion to make that connection or ask the relevant student about it. This not only lets you address the relevant important material, but it lets you recognize a student’s contribution to the discussion and models the collaborative nature of successful academic discourse.

I don’t have time in section to properly facilitate a discussion of every student’s question. Section time is finite, and you may not be able to get to every student’s question. However, simply letting student contributions go unrecognized and unused is not especially conducive to an inclusive discussion.

• Group similar questions together. Ask students to submit questions to you before section. Organize questions with similar content together. Then, in section, ask students with similar questions to present their questions together.

• Keep a record of unaddressed student questions. Either in class (on the board, in your notes, etc.) or through an online document, maintain a list of questions that don’t get properly addressed in class discussion. This can not only recognizes otherwise ignored student contributions but can also be used as fodder for future sections discussion or even as inspiration students can use for writing and other assignments