Enriching and Enhancing Student Learning through Questioning

Brenda Hill
Mar 22, 2010

"The power of questioning is in the answering. As teachers, we not only need to ask good questions to get good answers, but need to ask good questions to promote the thinking required to give good answers."

- from Good Questions for Math Teaching: Why Ask Them and What to Ask,
Pat Lilburn, Peter Sullivan, and Toby Gordon

There has been much written and documented about the importance of classroom questioning. We are constantly reminded by educational researchers about the significance of questioning and questioning techniques. The historical significance of questioning has been around since the time of Socrates. He was a master in using the educational strategy of questioning to expose contradictions and challenge assumptions that often lead to increased wisdom and new understanding. "Research indicates that questioning is second only to lecturing in popularity as a teaching method and that classroom teachers spend anywhere from thirty-five to fifty percent of their instructional time conducting questioning sessions." (‘Classroom Questioning', K. Cotton)

Since questioning is commonly used as a teaching strategy it has the potential to tremendously impact student learning; therefore, researchers have begun to explore the relationship between methods of questioning and student achievement and behavior. Higher level questioning asks students to use newly acquired knowledge to construct answers that are logical, meaningful, and reasoned with evidence. As we strive to plan for and use effective questioning strategies in the classroom we must first understand the difference between effective and ineffective questions. Effective questions are focused, open-ended - requiring more than a yes or no answer, and free from prejudice, distortion, and bias. If effective questions are defined as focused, open-ended, and reflective, then ineffective questions are defined as unfocused, closed, and slanted. (Questioning Techniques, Bloom and Taba, Ideas from Peter Martorella "Social Studies for Elementary School Children", 1998 and John Michaelis "Social Studies for Children", 1998) The result of higher level questioning is higher level thinking.

For many years educators have used Benjamin Bloom's taxonomy to develop and formulate questions based upon his six categories of higher level thinking skills. Bloom's six categories from lowest to highest include: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Each questioning category is defined in detail in the attached table (please look above the masthead for the attachment).

Now that we have explored what higher level thinking questions are and what they look like, how do we take what we know and assimilate these higher level questions into the Learning-Focused Model? The following steps will provide guidance in helping teachers "plan for" and "think about" effective classroom questioning:

1. Determine the Lesson Essential Question by asking, "How do I want students to think about this content?" Identify one of the top eight Extending Thinking strategies as a focus to support the Lesson Essential Question: compare/contrast, classify/categorize, abstracting, analyzing perspectives, induction, deduction, error analysis, and constructing support. (Refer to the Connecting Extending Thinking book and flipchart.)
2. Develop Assessment Prompts that are linked to the Lesson Essential Question (LEQ) and the selected Extending Thinking strategy. The LEQ and the Extending Thinking strategy are used as guides for planning higher level questions. (Unlocking the Secrets of the LEARNING-FOCUSED Strategies Model Version 7 contains additional information about Assessment Prompts.)
3. Select a graphic organizer to be used during the lesson. The graphic organizer may reflect and support higher level questioning.
4. Once an Extending Thinking strategy has been determined for the lesson and the graphic organizer has been chosen, higher level questions are planned that will support the Extending Thinking strategy and the LEQ. Higher level questions will ensure that students are thinking about the concept, topic, or skill at a "higher " level. (Refer to the attached matrix as a resource for planning quality higher level questions.)
5. Record and use these higher level questions in the "Teaching Strategies" of an Acquisition Lesson and make sure to plan for them in Extending Thinking lessons/activities. Reminder: questions are posed to collaborative pairs, as well as individual students.
6. Plan assignments and questions for assignments that require students to think deeply about the content they are learning.
7. Plan common assessments - formative or summative - using higher level questions.

As we encounter today's challenges of increasing student achievement for all, higher level questioning in direct correlation with a focus on the extending thinking strategies is an educational approach that allows students the opportunity to deepen understanding of new knowledge ensuring future success in school and in life.

References

Questioning Techniques, Benjamin Bloom and HildaTaba Ideas from Peter Martorella "Social Studies for Elementary School Children", 1998 and John Michaelis "Social Studies for Children", 1998

Classroom Questioning, Kathleen Cotton
http://www.learner.org/workshops/socialstudies/pdf/session/6.ClassroomQuestioning.pdf

http://specialed.about.com/od/teacherchecklists/a/bloom.htm