1. Teaching strategies/skills Questioning
Susie Fawcett

2. What is the purpose of questioning in physical education lessons?
Check on prior knowledge and understanding
To stimulate recall, mobilising existing knowledge and experience in order to create new understanding and meaning
To promote pupils’ thinking about the way they have learnt
As a management tactic
Diagnose learning difficulties
Develop children’s cognitive skills
Interest, engage, challenge pupils

3. Bloom’s Taxonomy of Questioning (cognitive development)
Low in cognitive demand-knowledge questions (closed)
Intermediate cognitive demand-comprehension and application (open)
High cognitive demand-analysis, synthesis and evaluation (open)

4. Sequencing of questions
Sequencing or combining questions must be planned with particular objectives in mind
The sequence must be logical and ideas linked
Start with low order questions to remind pupils of certain facts
Then encourage them to apply their facts to particular problems (high order questions)

5. Brown and Wragg
‘if we want to ask questions which get children to think, then we’ve got to think ourselves about questions we are going to ask them.’

6. How can teachers produce effective questions?
IDEA approach to questioning (Brown and Wragg 1993)
I- Identify the key questions in relation to lesson objectives
D- Decide on the level and order (timing) of the questions
E- Extend the questioning.
A- Analyse the answers that you are likely to receive and the responses you might give

7. What are the tactics and skills of producing a good question?
Clarity- questions should not be vague and unclear
Brief- Pupils have difficulty understanding long questions
Appropriate language
Well-planned

8. The skill of effective questioning
Ensure the whole class can hear the question and the answer
Planned distribution
Develop rules and routines for answering questions
Give pupils time to think of the answer (3-5 seconds, chat with partner, activity before answering).
Appropriate handling of pupil responses

9. How do we respond to inappropriate or incorrect answers?
Listen carefully to the pupil answer so you can fully understand what they are saying
Try not to answer the question yourself
Prompt or probe follow up question to direct the pupil to a more accurate or precise answer
Be positive to pupils attempts and provide a safe environment
However you must ensure you correct answers

10. Most common questioning errors
Not looking at pupils they are questioning
Speak too fast
Lack of clarity of speech
Questions too complex, lengthy
Vocabulary beyond understanding of pupils
Disjointed
Not providing adequate wait time for pupils to think (Rowe 1986)

11. Wait time Rowe (1986) Wait about 3 seconds Encourages longer answers
Greater number and variety of responses
More risk taking when answering

12. Strategies to give pupils time to think
Collaboration before answering
Writing the key open (big understanding) questions on the board or resource card at the start of the lesson
Question-activity-answer

13. Recommendations
Plan questions in lesson plan with a number of correct answers alongside
Think carefully about strategies you will use to enable pupils to think about answers
Ensure pupils can hear both question and answer
Develop rules and routines to avoid calling out
Observe experienced teachers
Request mentor to provide specific feedback on how your questioning technique could be improved

14. Helping pupils develop their own ability to raise questions
Being able to raise questions to explore a problem or to find an answer is a key learning skill.