Questioning:
Consider the following statements
The majority of questions asked during
lessons are:
 Asked by teachers
 Answered by teachers
 Are closed questions
 For review and to assess understanding,
rather than to challenge thinking and develop
understanding.
What is your experience?
Pitfalls of questioning
It is easy to fall into the trap of:

asking too many closed questions;

asking pupils questions to which they can respond with a
simple yes or no answer;

asking too many short-answer, recall-based questions;

asking bogus ‘guess what I’m thinking’ questions;

starting all questions with the same stem;
Pitfalls of questioning

dealing ineffectively with incorrect answers or
misconceptions;

focusing on a small number of pupils and not involving
the whole class;

not giving pupils time to reflect, or to pose their own
questions;

asking questions when another strategy might be
more appropriate.
To lead pupils
through a planned
sequence
Interest, engage
and challenge
pupils
To promote reasoning, problem
solving evaluation and the
formation of hypotheses
To promote
pupils thinking
about the way
they have
learned.
The purpose of questioning
Check prior
knowledge
To extend thinking
To focus thinking
from the concrete and
on key concepts
factual to the
and issues
analytical and
To build on prior knowledge in
evaluative
order to create new
understanding and meaning
Effective questioning
 reinforces
and revisits the learning objectives;
 includes
‘staging’ questions;
 involves
all pupils;
 engages
pupils in thinking for themselves;
 promotes
 creates
justification and reasoning;
an atmosphere of trust;
Effective questioning
 shows
connections between previous and new
learning;
 encourages
pupils to speculate
and
hypothesize;
 encourages
pupils to ask as questions;
 encourages
pupils to listen and respond to each
other as well as to the teacher.
 Includes
‘wait time’
Alternatives to questioning

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Invite pupils to elaborate.
Speculate about the
subject
Make a suggestion.
Offer extra information
Reinforce useful
suggestions.
Clarify ideas
Echo comments.
Non- verbal intervention.
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Knowledge
Comprehension.
Application.
Low order skills
Middle order skills
Analysis
Synthesis
Evaluation
High order skills
Retention rates
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Lecture – 5%
Reading -10%
Audio – visual -20%
Demonstrating – 30%
Discussion-50%
Practice by doing – 75%
Teaching others – 90%
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Source: National Training Laboratories, Bethel, Maine