Blog Post # 4

The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom

Why do teachers ask questions? Teachers ask questions to see if their students understand the material being taught. Sometimes after material is taught, teachers will ask the students do they have any questions or do they understand. If no one has any questions, educators will move on to teach the next subject without realizing they may have a student that does not understand what was previously taught. What if a student is too shy to ask a question in front of the class in fear of being laughed at? What if the student does not realize that he or she is confused about the lesson? Well, what if the teacher ask a question and pick the student with his or her hand raised, she has the correct answer, but was everyone paying attention? Most likely, everyone was not paying attention. There are many different reasons why students do not ask questions. As educators it is important for us to ask questions in the right way. Ben Johnson’s blog post really put in perspective on how important it is to ask the right questions. What is one effective approach for asking a question? When teachers ask a question, they should pause only for about three seconds and then call a student’s name. By doing this, all the other students will be thinking of an answer to the question just in case they are chosen to answer the question next. Asking the right questions can get all students involve in the learning process.

Asking Questions to Improve Learning

Asking questions to improve learning gave different ways to ask questions. When planning questions to ask, we need to keep in mind what concept we want the students to learn. If we ask a yes or no questions, we need to follow up with and additional question. This allows the students to provide evidence or an example on why they answered the way they did. In class discussions, be sure not to ask more than one question at a time and always aim for direct, clear, and specific questions. Also, we need to ask different styles of questions such as: “closed’ questions, managerial questions, and “open” questions. Questions such as these test students’ comprehension of the information, their understanding of the assignment, and encourages active learning in the classroom. Along with asking questions, teachers should respond effectively. Teachers should not interrupt their students and they should show that they are interested in their response.

Three Ways to Ask Better Questions in the Classroom

1. Prepare questions.
2. Play with the question.
3. Preserve good questions

When a teacher prepare his or her questions in advance, it allows him or her to get organized and helps him or her to be sure that they are not leaving anything out. Playing with the questions encourages students to think and preserving good questions allow teachers to use it again in the future.

What do we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher? Effective teachers need to ask questions that test students’ comprehension of the information, their understanding of the assignment, and they need to ask questions that encourage active learning. Most importantly, when they ask questions they need to have strategies that will get the whole class involve, such as picking a random student to answer a question.