HIGH IMPACT TEACHING STRATEGIES
Excellence in Teaching and Learning
Overview
Questioning is a powerful tool and effective teachers regularly use it for a range of purposes. It engages students, stimulates interest and curiosity in the learning, and makes links to students’ lives.
Questioning opens up opportunities for students to discuss, argue, and express opinions and alternative points of view.
Effective questioning yields immediate feedback on student understanding, supports informal and formative assessment, and captures feedback on effectiveness of teaching strategies.
Key Elements
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Plan questions in advance for probing, extending, revising and reflecting
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Teachers use open questions
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Questions used as an immediate source of feedback to track progress/understanding
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Cold call and strategic sampling are commonly used questioning strategies
Related Effect Sizes
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Questioning – 0.46
This strategy is demonstrated when the teacher:
Negotiates conversational protocols which support all students to make meaningful contributions
Targets questions, or responds to answers, in ways that acknowledge individual needs and potential contributions
Models acceptance and valuing of unusual ideas
Provides stimulus materials that challenge students’ ideas and encourage discussion
Engages students in dialogue, continuously extending their thinking and refining students’ understanding
Asks questions that probe student thinking and prompt them to justify their responses
Provides feedback and structures opportunities for students to give feedback to one another.
This strategy is NOT demonstrated when the teacher:
Mainly asks questions that are closed, focuses on recall of information, and having one ‘right’ answer
Allows insufficient wait time for students to think about the question and their possible responses
Consistently relies on a few students to respond and does not engage all students in discussion
Allows the class discussion to wander without focus
Dominates the discussion and does not allow students to interact, challenge viewpoints and speculate.
This strategy is demonstrated when students:
Feel confident to ask questions, speculate and hypothesise, and when they respect others’ views
Understand how different types of questions are used to identify and clarify information
Give feedback to one another, and when they build on and challenge one another’s ideas.
Typical problems of practice in this area:
Questions asked do not strech students
The questions asked do not match the lesson objective
The teacher gets a correct response from one student and assumes that the whole class know the answer.
Questions are closed; there is a lack of open-ended or follow-on questions
Thinking time is not given for students to consider their response
Teachers only ask students for a response who have their hands up
Possible LfL questions to ask students
This skill is better observed than asked about
To what degree do you feel challenged by the questions the teacher asks when they are teaching you?
To what degree do you feel engaged/involved by the questions the teacher asks when they are teaching you?
Does your teacher ever ask you any questions?
How does the teacher get you involved in the class during instructional time
JS: “Who asks the questions in your class?” (students, teachers, or both). Give an example.
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Learners experience supportive, respectful, and authentic relationships
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Learners thrive in an environment that is both safe and challenging
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Learners understand the purpose of their learning
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Learners readily connect new learning with previous knowledge, concepts and skills
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Learners feel individually challenged at an appropriate level
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Learners have increasing agency in their learning
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Learners receive ongoing feedback
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Learners experience a range of learning and teaching methodologies
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Learners have ample opportunities to practise
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Learners have regular opportunities to collaborate with and learn from others
Reminder of the TLPP
Training Materials from GTT (Great Teaching Toolkit)
How the Great Teaching Toolkit supports this HIT
Element 2.3 Learner motivation (See article “How much thought is happening in the classroom?”)
Element 4.3 Questioning
