Improving the quality of talk
and questioning to support
pupil learning
Key issue addressed by the study

This research was designed to:
– help teachers understand how they might improve
their questioning skills
– involve pupils more in lessons
– use talk to develop pupils’ thinking and understanding
How did teachers and pupils interact in
whole class teaching?


The dominant interaction
pattern was teacher-childteacher-child
Questions with
predetermined answers
meant teachers missed
opportunities for supporting
learning through helping
pupils to make connections
between what they already
knew and new ideas
How could teachers use talk to extend
the children’s thinking?

Generating and extending pupil thinking requires
sensitive shaping of the classroom dialogue and
sensitive listening to pupils’ responses
How did teachers generate and extend
pupil thinking?
They planned the
first question in a
sequence carefully
 But considered
how subsequent
questioning might
extend and support
learning and
understanding

Example of teachers’ extending
children’s thinking

Using a simple strategy of enquiring about
possible reasons, the teacher elicited a more
extended response to a question about why a
boy hit his brother
Example of teacher extending
children’s thinking




Teacher: Why do you do it?
Child: I don’t know
Teacher: Did you do it to hurt him? Had he made you
cross?
Child: No he kept bugging me so he was walking along
the garden and I lobbed it and it just bounced off the top
of his head.
Which pupils were most involved during
whole class teaching?:
High achievers, especially
girls, put their hands up
and joined in collective
responses
 Low achievers and boys
were more likely to be off
task

Strategies for maximising participation
of all pupils:

-
Teachers can increase all
pupils’ involvement through:
a ‘no hands up policy’
inviting children to draw
and reflect on personal
experiences
Who were the children in the study?

The researchers observed Year 2 pupils from
three first schools and Year 6 pupils from three
primary schools
How was the information gathered?


The researchers videoed 15 minute teaching
episodes during literacy, numeracy and one
other curriculum area
Other data were also collected:
– observations of sample pupils using structured
schedules to capture verbal and non-verbal
responses
– teacher reflections using video as prompt
– notes made by researchers recording factors such as
friendships and classroom interruptions
The video recordings captured:

The teacher’s talk

The pupils’ responses

The pupils’ non-verbal interactions
How can teachers use the evidence in
this study?

The study found that it was effective to plan
questions without predetermined answers.
– You might want to ask a colleague to observe your
whole class teaching session to note the types of
questions you ask and their impact on the quality of
pupils’ answers.
– Could you include key questions in your lesson
planning, along with prompts you could use to extend
pupils’ answers?
How can school leaders use the
evidence in this study?
The study found that the key point about helping
colleagues to develop their questioning skills
was to improve the quality of the dialogue
 Could you encourage your staff to practice their
questioning skills by taking part in role plays with
each other or discussing and reflecting on video
recordings of classroom episodes?

Follow-up reading
Study reference: Myhill, D. (2006) Talk,talk,talk:
Teaching and learning in whole class discourse
Research Papers in Education Vol. 21, No. 1 pp.
19-41
 Summary available at:
http://www.tla.ac.uk/site/SiteAssets/RfT1/06RE0
33%20Effective%20talk%20in%20the%20primar
y%20classroom.pdf
