Questioning Procedures

Part A.

In a day and age where there seem to be continuous innovations in teaching methods and styles emerging and replacing older, outdated ones all the time one constant still remains. That constant is the importance of continuing to incorporate questioning techniques in the classroom. Questions are an essential tool for learning that can be used to probe for learner understanding, to provide effective feedback to learners, and to use as follow ups to other questions. Each is an important part of the learning process when trying to facilitate an environment that will help to instill true knowledge in a student rather than a temporary memorization of selected details.

It is not enough to simply lecture on a subject and expect students to completely understand and retain information that was presented. It’s important that teachers ask questions and use procedures that probe for learner understanding. These questions need to go beyond requiring a simple yes or no answer, but should encourage students to share what they have learned in their own words. Through their responses a teacher can then determine the effectiveness of their lesson or where the need for clarification might lie. Classroom discussions that are led by open ended questions with many possible answers are the best. As questions are asked lively discussions can take place where students offer their own opinions and defend those opinion to others in a respectful way.

When using questioning techniques during classroom instruction, the answers that students give can help a teacher to determine the type of feedback or further instruction students might need. If the activity is a simple one such as random assignment of answer multiplication questions or spelling words correctly when called on its easy to know if a student has answered a question correctly. If a student consistently answers all multiplication facts involving ones with factors of seven incorrectly you can tentatively assume further...