1. The Probing Question
Support student participation in the active classroom by using challenging questions to establish and structure discussion
Probing questions are a key tool for the academic facilitating the active classroom.
Establish the context
Establish the conundrum
Probing iteration
Challenge the students
Analyse the answers
Enrich the context
Resolve
Clarify
Conclude
Ask ‘why’
Challenge assumptions, intuition and facts.
“That’s true, but why do you think that?”
“Who agrees with that? Why?”
Ask ‘or’
Consider options.
“Is there a another way of putting that?”
“Could there be another explanation?”
Ask ‘how’
Elicit logic, process and function.
“How did you work that out?”
“What links all these ideas together?”
Ask ‘what if’
Elaborate with examples and exchanging variables.
“What would happen if we made it bigger?”
“Is it always true or just in some situations like this example? Can we test that?”