Serendipity35

Asking questions in class is an important teaching skill. It encourages students to think and learn. It helps you as a teacher to hear student answers; it's the first real way to assess their learning.

I remember having education courses when I was an undergrad that talked about asking questions and using the Socratic Method. But just asking questions doesn't make it an effective practice.

I found out years later that the "Socratic Method" was not quite just "asking questions" anyway. It is a dialectical method, often involving a discussion in which the defense of one point of view is questioned. It is a negative method of hypothesis elimination, in that better hypotheses are found by steadily identifying and eliminating those that lead to contradictions.

Recently, I was doing some research on questioning techniques (see sources below) for a presentation. I compiled some tactics for more effective questioning that can help you "capture students' attention, arouse their curiosity, reinforce important points, and promote active learning" (Davis, 1993).

1. Ask one question at a time - multiple questions at once can confuse students


2. Avoid yes/no questions - try asking "how" and "why" questions


3. Ask students what they think of other students' answers


4. Ask questions that YOU don't know the answers to. Too often teachers guide the dialogue towards the answer they want to hear.


5. Pose questions that lack a single right answer


6. Focus your questions - broad questions can steer discussion off topic


7. Wait time - pause in silence after a question to allow for students to think about the answer. Don't be afraid of the "dead air" -this is not talk radio.
   


8. Try to find and show consensus on responses.
   


9. Ask questions that require students to apply knowledge and demonstrate their understanding. "Do you understand?" questioning has little value


10. Ask some difficult questions.
    


11. Structure your questioning to encourage students to respond to one another.


12. When you say "I wonder if it is possible that..." it opens up possibilities that may encourage the reluctant answerer. A question that begins like "What is the definition of ..." signals that there is a specific answer required.
    


13. Good questioning involves all the students. Even walking around the room can bring students into the conversation. Wait staff at restaurants learn that kneeling at the table and coming closer and to the level of the customer has a positive effect on tipping.
    


14. Albert Einstein “Most teachers waste their time by asking questions that are intended to discover what a pupil does not know, whereas the true art of questioning is to discover what the pupil does know or is capable of knowing.”  The question itself can teach something even before there are answers.


15. If you don't embrace wrong answers, students won't take risks. I would actually be wary if all I got were correct answers. Yes, some questions have correct answers, but some incorrect answers will lead to deeper discussion and learning.
    


16. Follow-up questions that ask for specifics, clarification, examples, relationships and more are very important. If you stop when you get to "the answer," I would question your questioning.

When all the questioning is over and you get to testing, test the way you question. Why bother with all this critical thinking in class if you are going to ask them test questions that require them to memorize and regurgitate.

Resources

Davis, B. G. Tools for Teaching. Jossey-Bass.
How to use the Socratic method in the classroom
The Socratic method as an approach to learning and its benefits (pdf)
Lemov, D. Teach Like a Champion: 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College Jossey-Bass.