Practice 3: Ask Questions
Questioning is a potentially powerful tool that teachers can use to help students better understand academic content. However, simply asking more questions of students might not produce the desired effect. One of the strongest implications from Rosenshine’s ‘Principles of Instruction’, according to Sherrington (2019), is that effective questioning lies at the heart of great instructional teaching. Questioning needs to be a highly interactive, dynamic, responsive process – one in which takes time to plan. As teachers we should be constantly wondering “How is it going? How well have I explained this? Are students making sense of it?” Then teachers should solicit information to allow us to answer those questions. However, we should be strategic in the number and types of questions asked.
This specific principle includes asking a large number of questions and checking the responses of all students. “Questions help students practice new information and connect new material to their prior learning.” Rosenshine provides a strong message that more effective teachers ask more questions. This does not necessarily mean teachers should ask 300-400 questions a day, as research shows. However, Sherrington (2019) explains that more effective teachers ask more students questions, probe in more depth, take more time to explain, clarify, and check for understanding.
Now it is time to pause and explore some possible question stems you may want to refer to when teaching.
Explore the following:
Rosenshine’s article from the start of this course. Read page 15 which provides readers with a series of question stems that teachers could use to ask questions in their classroom.
Question Prompts developed by Challenging Learning
Marzano’s Taxonomy – Question Stems, Products, Terms, and Phrases
After reviewing the different types of: questions, stems, and probes – reflect on which questions you could use more frequently as well as which types of questions are designed to challenge students’ thinking and encourage them to think in different ways.
As teachers become more strategic about the types of questions they use, Sherrington (2019) discusses the use of different questioning strategies. Teachers are encouraged to focus on one or two strategies, explicitly modeling them until they become well-practiced. Below are some examples of possible strategies that may be used in your classroom.
Explore one of the seven strategies above to unlock the full power of questioning, as each works on a different principle. Click the website below to learn more about each of the strategies.
In closing, if you are curious about receiving more support on the use of questioning, please feel free to browse this additional video resource:
Watch the video by John Hattie as he elaborates on the understanding of why questions are an essential component of developing self-regulated learners.
