Maximizing Learning Through Questioning Techniques

1. Questioning NQT/New staff session Tuesday 6th Feb 2018

2. Starting point • “It is easier to judge the mind of a man by his questions rather than his answers.”—Pierre-Marc-Gaston, duc de Lévis (1764–1830) • To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why? • What is the purpose of a question? • Why do we ask them? • How might their purpose differ from one circumstance and in one context to another?

3. Objectives of the session • Establish what the reasons are for questioning • Explore a range of question types and techniques • Embed these skills practically; write some question streams in a subject-specific context

4. Uses • Seek what students already know about a topic • Recall/remember • Steering/leading towards a specific answer • For revision, or as an aide memoire • Probing • Exploring • Analysing

5. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3596240/ - Ronald D. Vale, University of Virgina Do lead by example, be a model learner and share the answer at a later date ‘Questioning may seem like a good educational approach, so why is it not a more common practice in [science] education? Several cultural factors present barriers. First is the perception that the teacher is an almighty vessel of knowledge who imparts information to students. In that formulation, a difficult question with no immediate answer or an uncertain answer can be threatening to a teacher and disappointing to a student. However, that view is unfair to teachers. Teachers also need to be students. A teacher should feel completely comfortable saying, “I do not know the answer to that question, but let me look it up—or let's look it up together.” Many questions do not have quick, easy answers and thus become seeds for investigation. Students also should be able to teach their peers when they look up an answer to a question. In this model, teachers and students become partners in their mutual education.’ Don’t be scared to say ‘I don’t know the answer.’

6. Types of questions: Open and Closed Open Closed Questions that require short (often one word) answers Yes/no answers, specific, concise Often helpful to recall basic information E.g what is the interval at the beginning of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony? • Broad questions • Require longer answers • May not have a right answer but a range of responses may be appropriate • E.g. Why did Beethoven use this interval at the beginning of his 5th Symphony? Often start with what, why and how Mostly start with which, who, where, when, is/are, do/did, would/will, could/can, was/were, have/has

7. Types of Questions: Blooms and revised Blooms

8. Socratic Method • Open to the fact that he might be wrong, or know nothing, and so likelier to discover the right answer – growth mindset! • Forever questioning known truths to test if the are really ‘known’ • In a most basic form we can break this down to answering a question with another question • Use known information to explore unknown information and then revisit the known information. • E.g. Teaching 7/8 in Music • Questioning sources once arriving at a conclusion based on the source in History

9. Thunks • A thunk is ‘a beguiling question about everyday things that stops you in your tracks and helps you to look at the world in a whole new light.’ • There are NO right or wrong answers to these questions – simply YOUR answers. Students do however need to be able to justify these. • Give the class plenty of thinking time, and try to step back from being a teacher – listen to, and accept what you hear, but by all means challenge it with an opposing view – a ‘but what if…..’ type of question to encourage further discussion. • As most of these questions are available at www.thunks.co.uk you may post interesting answers that you receive there for others to enjoy, or even pose some questions that your class create themselves

10. Fermi Questioning • Open questions • Do have specific answers • Cannot be answered without devising a series of other, closed questions • Excellent for getting students to ask their own questions about a topic or theme

11. Hands up? • School policy on questioning and what the handbook says • What do you do? What works? What doesn’t work? • Lolly sticks • Targeted at students based on your knowledge of their ability • Randomizer on Classcharts (thanks John!)

12. Making this useful to you • Try writing a Blooms question stream into your lesson over the next week. • Can you link each stage of the pyramid to a flight path, or to a command word on your exam syllabus for KS4? e.g. Remember– What is this object? Understand – How is this object played? Apply – How else could you hold this object when playing to achieve a similar sound? Analyse – Watch this video of the object being used, can you find the three different strikes in the video? Evaluate- How could his playing technique be more efficient? Create – If you had the same materials, how could you re-model or redesign this object? / Can you compose your own rhythm on the object? / Can you incorporate your new playing technique into your rhythm?

13. Questions? • Further reading: • Questioning Technique pocketbook – Gordon Pope • Teachers Toolkit – subscribe as it is full of good ideas! • Questioning and Teaching: A Manual of Practice – J.T. Dillon