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This week’s article is a guide on how teachers can apply in their classrooms the concepts discussed in the last two articles on questioning.
As noted last week, the practicality of Bloom’s taxonomy in line with critical thinking is seen in the array of questions that have been suggested for teachers’ use. At the six level, teachers – whether testing for knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis or evaluation – can use the corresponding questions to determine the level of following by their students.
Another approach has to do with the Socratic method of questioning, which entails that teachers be skillful at using exploratory, spontaneous, and focused questions in order to probe the students and ask them thought-provoking questions that would elicit open discussions among them until they arrive at the point of understanding. Such an approach implies that teachers do a lot of planning, as they would not need to rush through the lesson but give the students adequate time to brainstorm, compare ideas, and come up with viable answers. That exploratory questions involve the use of questions to ascertain how much the students already know about the subject matter is the view held by Tofade et al (2013). Spontaneous questions get the students to think about their position or beliefs about a matter and self-correct their thoughts, while focused questions get the students to think along the lines of the subject matter in the way the teacher deems necessary. Teachers can apply these strategies to have students who are poised for learning and thinking critically.
Additional strategies that can be deployed by teachers include some shared by Ged Gast. To help students identify the range of possible responses and be able to select the right ones, teachers could increase the level of challenge with each question by moving from the known to the unknown, and from lower to higher order questioning. This is regarded as a staging or sequencing approach.
Teachers can also evoke students’ thinking as it has to do with moral and complex issues. By using big questions, students are helped to develop deeper and more profound thinking. When questions like ‘What is the purpose of life?’, ‘Is this life all there is?’ and ‘Does life emanate from creation or evolution?’ are posed to the students at the beginning of a class, students are made to focus their attention on the points to be shared so as to have an answer at the end of the lesson. The details shared could help them reflect deeply on the initial question posed and lead them to self-realization.
Yet another kind of questioning that teachers can use is leading questions. Leading questions make it easier for students who struggle with bigger or complex issues to know the direction their answers should follow. Teachers use leading questions to guide and lead their students in their thinking, thus developing further their perceptive powers of reasoning. Teachers, by means of this method, are able to evaluate and assess the level of their students’ thinking and know how to help them.
Sometimes, teachers can be very specific in the kind of responses they expect from their students. To do this, they could deploy the fat questioning strategy where students are told to answer questions within a particular time frame – say, not less than 15 words; one page; or one phrase, as the case may be. When a minimum answer is sought from students, they are encouraged to think along that line, and this builds their speaking and reasoning skills and promotes the right use of critical and technical language.
Again, teachers can break down questions into parts that would allow for many students to participate in a given task. Students may be grouped into teams, or individual students may be asked to provide information on an area so that others would participate in the exercise, and it becomes a learning experience for them all. In all of my classes, I break up my students into groups and they work together as they answer quizzes generated on Kahoot.it. The interaction is usually fun-filled and the students love learning that way.
Students should also be encouraged to ask questions that show they are actively engaged in the learning process. In addition to their questioning an author whose work they have read by using questions such as, ‘What is the author trying to say?’, ‘Why has the author chosen this word over another?’, and ‘How does this whole piece bring about a united whole?’, students must also learn how to generate good questions that will show that learning has taken place and that they are able to think critically. According to TEAL (2013:3), ‘effective self-questioning can improve students’ awareness and control their thinking, which in turn can improve their learning. It can improve long-term retention of knowledge and skills, as well as the ability of students to apply and transfer the knowledge and skills they have learned. It can engage and motivate students by making them active participants in the learning process.’
A likely challenge to the use of questioning by teachers include that teachers have to be patient and comfortable with silence. But when a teacher is mostly concerned with the allotted timing, it becomes problematic for them to patiently elicit responses from the students, especially if they are slow in making their contributions. This challenge emphasizes the need for teachers to also master the art of active listening. They need to be willing to give their students enough time to respond to questions and communicate what they have in mind. Also, teachers need to refrain from asking too many questions at the same time, as this would be utterly confusing to the students. Patiently waiting for responses is a virtue that teachers need to cultivate. Creating a classroom culture that is open to dialogue is critical to success for teachers.
All in all, teachers can truly make students’ learning experience an unforgettable one by their apt use of questions. Various strategies and approaches have been shared, and they have been tested and shown to be productive. Thus, teachers can adopt whichever ones suit their teaching purposes and their students’ academic level. That way, teaching and learning objectives will be achieved, and the experience will be worth the time and effort. #Questioning Tools for Effective Communication in the Classroom is culled from Chapter 4 of the book, ‘Communication in Education- A Handbook for Teachers’, edited by Dr. Ruth Karachi Benson Oji.
