Questioning strategy

Questioning strategy

It is the method of teaching through the exchange of questions and answers.

Questioning strategy to motivate and to arouse interest for the learners and to easily evaluate how much students have learnt in particular topics are its purposes. It can also manage or control the class. Questioning encourages involvement of passive learners. It is a lifelong learning skill and it helps to summarize the lesson.

Teacher used to reflect carefully the particular curriculum objectives, content and materials when planning their questions. Also the subject matter used for class room discussion will obviously have an important effect on pupil response. Teacher must consider the characteristics of the pupil when the questions are asked. There will be many differences between pupils in ability and the experience.

The evaluation of key questions after a discussion can provide much information to the teachers not only on the effectiveness of their own questioning but also development in the quality of the individuals thought in attempting to answer the questions.

There are two types of questions:

Convergent Questions are those questions that require one correct answering in general they are question of fact and are often called low level questions. The focus under this category is on narrow objectives. It encourages student’s responses to coverage on the central idea. They produce short responses focusing on lower levels of thinking. Divergent questions have no single correct answer and are more analytical, testing the students ability to synthesis information, offer educated opinion or create hypothesis based on their knowledge. These types of questions are always open-ended, allowing the students to express themselves as they demonstrate their ability to reason in the subject.

Divergent question is also open ended question allowing the students to express themselves as they demonstrate their ability to reason in the subject

As per the Bloom’s taxonomy there are six levels of questions.It gives teachers and students an opportunity to learn and practice a range of thinking and provides a simple structure for many different kinds of questions and thinking. The six levels are:

1.      Remembering

2.      Understanding

3.      Applying

4.      Analyzing

5.      Evaluating

6.      Creating                                             

Socratic questioning

Socratic questioning helps students to think critically by focusing explicitly on the process of thinking. During disciplined, carefully structured questioning, students must slow down and examine their own thinking processes.

There are six types of questions in Socratic questioning.

·         Conceptual clarification questions:

Get them to think more about what exactly they are asking or thinking about. Prove the concepts behind their argument. Basic 'tell me more' questions that get them to go deeper.

Eg : Why are you saying that?

·         Probing assumptions:                       

Probing of assumptions makes them think about the presuppositions and unquestioned beliefs on which they are founding their argument. This is shaking the bedrock and should get them really going.

Eg: What else could we assume?

·         Probing rationale, reasons and evidence:

When they give a rationale for their arguments, dig into that reasoning rather than assuming it is a given. People often use un-thought-through or weakly understood supports for their arguments.

Eg: Why is that happening?

·         Questioning viewpoints and perspectives:

Most arguments are given from a particular position. So attack the position. Show that there are other, equally valid, viewpoints.

Eg: Another way of looking at this is ..., does this seem reasonable?

·         Probe implications and consequences:

The argument that they give may have logical implications that can be forecast. Do these make sense? Are they desirable?

Eg: Then what would happen?

·         Questions about the question:

And you can also get reflexive about the whole thing, turning the question in on itself. Use their attack against themselves. Bounce the ball back into their court, etc.

Eg: What was the point of asking that question?