Blog Post #6 What Questions Do We Ask? How Do We Ask?

Like Ben Johnson, Joanne Chesley, and many others, I find the way teachers engage their class with questions very disturbing. One must find a better way to ask questions in order to be a better teacher. How can this be done? There are multiple ways.

Use Open-Ended Questions

Many teachers will ask their students closed-ended questions, or questions that can easily be answered by guessing "yes" or "no". For example a teacher may ask the class "Are flowers plants?". But students don't really have to think about answering this question, all they have to do is figure out yes or no. Students will learn better if they are forced to really think about what is being discussed. So, a better way to ask the same question would be "What is a flower? What would you categorize it as?". 

Keep the entire class engaged and listening

In Ben Johnson's blog "The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom" he mentions how only 1/3 of the class is likely to be thinking about the answer to any given question which is asked for anyone to answer. He continues to say that the other 2/3 of the class either doesn't care or feels that they are not smart so don't have to answer. This method is often used in any type or level class. Like Johnson, I feel that this is not the best way to ask students questions. So what is the best way? Johnson suggests to ask a specific student a question. In order to keep all students focus these questions should be asked randomly and the teacher should only call on a student after 3 seconds so that every one has a chance to think. I have to disagree slightly with Johnson here. Like he mentions after a teacher calls on a student most of the class sighs and is glad that they were not the one called. Only 1/3 of the class will still be listening for the answer. But what about thinking? I feel that the best way to solve this problem is to ask a question of the entire class, and wait long enough for every student to write down an answer. Then the teacher can call on one or more students to answer the question. This is what is done in the fifth grade class featured in the video "Questioning Styles and Strategies". Because every student had to answer the question they will be interested enough to listen for the answer since they'll want to know if they were right. 

Student Questions

After the students answer all of the teacher's questions are they done? No! Since the students will have been thinking of responses maybe they also thought of more questions. When students ask their own questions it shows that they were really listening and trying to understand the topic. This is discussed in Dr. Maryellen Weimer's blog "Three Ways to Ask Better Questions in the Classroom". He starts off talking about how teachers need to think about how to ask a question and when to ask. This is interesting, but what really caught my attention was his third point: to "preserve good questions". This is something that was done in my 6th grade Hebrew School class. My teacher would often write down any good ideas or questions that my classmates or I had. As a 12-year-old I was always excited when my thoughts or questions were good enough to be written down on the board or even better in the teacher's notebook. This always encouraged me to think harder and always participate in class discussions. Unfortunately, none of my school teachers did this. Many teachers would say "That is a good question. The answer is...". That did not give the same effect. It always seemed like they were just saying that so that students wouldn't be afraid to ask a question in class. While this is important, it does not necessarily make students want to think and participate. If all teachers would use this method of saving very good questions or general thoughts then through positive motivation more students will think and participate in class discussions.