Delivery
Be aware of the power of tone and intonation on meaning in the English language. The message a student hears necessarily changes depending on tone of voice and intonation employed. Use simple, direct, and clear language because complicated words require the student to spend more time decoding the question rather than formulating a response (Morgan and Saxton, 1991).
Methods & Strategies
Generally, the teacher’s goal is to employ techniques that will aid student responses and enhance learning. With that in mind, research shows that questions should be:
- accessible (i.e., they pertain to a subject to which students already have some knowledge and understanding, thus enabling them to piece together what they know, take risks, make assumptions, and test hypotheses).
- short (i.e., simple and direct questions take less time to decipher and allow more time to create responses).
- leading (i.e., they trigger a process of inquiry that leads to understanding of other related concepts) (Goodman and Bernston, 2000).
Arrange the students so that questions can be posed to all members of the class. All students should be in a position to hear and make eye contact with each other.
Teacher-centered instruction is not always conducive to spontaneous critical thought (Morgan and Saxton, 1991). In a lab or student-pair classroom setup, plan for how students can be asked questions most effectively. Consider giving each pair of students a question to work on and report back as a team, rather than ask one question of the entire group.
Make sure all students have easy access to dictionaries and other reference materials if these are needed to generate a response.
Make classroom conduct and appropriate behavior a priority. Reinforce turn-taking behaviors generally used in the classroom such as hand raising, a "talking stick", or a "speaker list".
Model appreciation, consideration, and respect of others to the students (Morgan and Saxton, 1991). Encourage active listening, free response, and safety (Harris, 2000).
Note which of your students may respond better to guided questions, individualized questioning, having time to reflect, advanced warning of questioning, and so on.
Take time to make notes about questioning success. Be aware of how student ability may affect your ability to ask questions.
Finally, analyze student questions carefully as they often provide information about how a student learns or makes sense of the world.
If your lesson is a continuation of a theme, ask questions that will require students to bring forward what was already learned. Send students home with a homework assignment that will ask them questions that will help solve tomorrow’s problem.
Begin by considering what you need students to know at the end of the class. Continually evaluate whether you are on-target throughout the lesson. Think about secondary goals that will be met through the delivery of the lesson or activity.
Remember to keep the discussion on track unless there is the possibility of real learning in a tangential discussion. With that said, be prepared to abandon your line of questions if it is not working (Morgan and Saxton, 1991).In an "introduction-explanation-activity-practice-review" style lesson, consider what type of questions you need to ask during each phase of the lesson.
Look for opportunities to mix lower-level and higher-level questions. Plan for other purposes and types of questions as well as the sequence in which you will likely need to ask them (Harris, 2000).
Decide whether the topic lends itself to obvious question types. Anticipate questions from students, and plan to ask questions that help them answer their own queries.