Nature of questioning in the classroom By-Farhin Sarkar Roll No.15

What is questioning? A question is a medium of communication through language.Questioning is the key to gaining more information.We all ask and are asked questions when engaged in conversation. What are the purposes of teachers’ classroom questions?These are- 1. To develop interest and motivate students to become actively involved in lessons. 2. To develop critical thinking skills and inquiring attitudes. 3. To review and summarize previous lessons .

Continued... 4. To assess achievement of instructional goals and objectives. 5. To stimulate students to pursue knowledge on their own .

Research Findings... General findings- 1. Instruction which includes posing questions during lessons is more effective in producing achievement gains than instruction carried out without questioning students. 2. Oral questions posed during classroom recitations are more effective in fostering learning than are written questions. 3. Questions which focus student attention on salient elements in the lesson result in better comprehension than questions which do not.

Placement and timing of question- 1. Asking questions frequently during class discussions is positively related to learning facts. 2. Increasing the frequency of classroom questions does not enhance the learning of more complex material. 3. Very young children and poor readers tend to focus only on material that will help them answer questions if these are posed before the lesson is presented.

Wait time- Researchers on questioning strategies speak of two kinds of wait-time: “wait-time 1” refers to the amount of time the teacher allows to elapse after he/she has posed a question and before a student begins to speak; and “wait-time 2” refers to the amount of time a teacher waits after a student has stopped speaking before saying anything.

Continued... Increasing wait-time beyond three seconds is positively related to the following student outcomes: 1. Improvements in the student achievement . 2. Decreases in students’ failure to respond. 3. Increases in the number of questions posed by students etc.

Continued... Increasing wait-time beyond three seconds is positively related to the following teacher outcomes: 1)In flexibility of teacher responses, with teachers listening more and engaging students in more discussions. (2) Increases in teacher expectations regarding students usually thought of as slow. (3) Expansion of the variety of questions asked by teachers etc.

Question types- The question types that we can use to analyze questioning strategies and develop a variety of questions to help students think- 1) Probing Questions Ex- i)What, exactly do you mean? ii)What are your reasons for thinking that is so?

Continued... 2)Factual questions- Questions which require the student to recall specific information s(he) has previously learned. Often these use who, what, when, where, etc. Eg- i) During which century did Shakespeare live? ii)What is the commercial method for producing hydrochloric acid?

3)Divergent Questions- Questions with no right or wrong answers, but which encourage exploration of possibilities. Requires both concrete and abstract thinking to arrive at an appropriate response. Ex-i)How would the story have been different if John had been a tall, strong boy instead of disabled? ii)If you are stuck on a desert and you do not have any water then what will you do?

4)Higher Order Questions- Questions which require students to figure out answers rather than remember them. Requires generalizations related to facts in meaningful patterns. Ex-i) We have examined the qualities these world leaders have in common. What might we conclude, in general, about qualities necessary for leadership? Why? ii) If the temperature of the gas remains the same, but gas is taken to an altitude of 4000 feet higher, what happens to the pressure of the gas? Why?

5) Affective Questions- Questions which elicit expressions of attitude, values, or feelings of the student. Ex: i)How do you feel about that? ii) Is that important to you? iii)Would you like to . . . ?

Guidelines for classroom questioning Based on the foregoing findings from the research on classroom questioning, the following recommendations are offered: Ask questions which focus on the salient elements in the lesson; avoid questioning students about extraneous matters. 2) With older and higher ability students, ask questions before (as well as after) material is read and studied.

3) Question younger and lower ability students only after material has been read and studied. 4) Ask a majority of higher cognitive questions when instructing older and higher ability students. 5) Increase wait-time beyond three seconds when asking higher cognitive questions etc.

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