FOR TEACHERS 2

EFFECTIVE TECHNIQUES OF QUESTIONING

• Phrase the questions clearly and specifically. Avoid vague and ambiguous questions.
• Adapt questions to the level of the students' abilities
• Ask questions logically and sequentially
• Ask questions at various levels
• Follow up on students' responses
  • Elicit longer, more meaningful and more frequent responses from students after an initial response by -
    • Maintaining a deliberate silence
    • Making a declarative statement
    • Making a reflective statement giving a sense of what the students said
    • Declaring perplexity over the response
    • Inviting elaboration
    • Encouraging other students to comment
• Give students time to think after they are questioned (Wait Time)
• The three most productive types of questions are variants of divergent thinking questions (Andrews, 1980):
  1. The Playground Question
     • Structured by instructor's disignating a carefully chosen aspect of the material (the "playground")
     • "Let's see if we can make any generalizations about the play as a whole from the nature of the opening lines."
  2. The Brainstorm Question
     • Structure is thematic
     • Generate as many ideas on a single topic as possible within a short period of time
     • "What kinds of things is Hamlet questioning - not just in his soliloquy, but throughout the play?"
  3. The Focal Question
     • Focuses on a well articulated issue
     • Choose among a limited number of positions or viewpoints and support your views
     • "Is Ivan Illych a victim of his society or did he create his problems by his own choices?"