Effective Questioning and Classroom Talk by Ged Gast Creativity Consultant

Effective Questioning and Classroom Talk

To develop learning & higher order thinking, promoting imagination, speculation, creative thinking & to pitch a suitable challenge level

DEXAL 5xW NO HANDS QUESTIONING CAMPER for Creativity BLOOMS TAXONOMY For pitch and challenge SATIP and CPFM

Asking questions is natural and intuitive. Teachers ask questions from the start of the lesson until the end. Asking questions forms part of any lesson because it invites the student to think, and even within a 'lecture' style lesson, rhetorical questions are used to invite silent agreement or begin the organisation of ideas to present a response. Research suggests teachers ask over 400 questions a day.

Teachers use questions to engage the students and sustain an 'active' style to the learning. The teacher also uses questions as part of the assessment of learning in order to determine how they best structure, organise and present new learning. However, research has found that many teachers wait only for 0.9 seconds before seeking an answer.

Developing questioning approaches, requires much greater emphasis on the time provided for students to think individually, collaboratively and deeply to enable them to develop answers and to share better answers. This will improve their thinking and engagement.

Historically, teachers have asked questions to check what has been learnt and understood, to help them gauge whether to further review previous learning, increase or decrease the challenge, and assess whether students are ready to move forward and learn new information (factual checks - ie 'Closed' questions). This can be structured as a simple 'teacher versus the class' approach (Bat and Ball), where the teacher asks a question and accepts an answer from a volunteer, or selects/conscripts a specific student to answer. These approaches are implicit in any pedagogy, but teachers need a range of 'Open' questioning strategies to address different learning needs and situations. Teachers must also pitch questions effectively to raise the thinking challenge, target specific students or groups within the class.

This guidance informs teachers how to pre-plan their questions and select approaches for promoting classroom talk; prepare their 'open' and 'high-challenge' questions; pre-determine the level and type of challenge they wish to set, who they will target and how they will target specific groups in the classroom.

How and why do we use Questions and Talk in the classroom?

Teachers use questioning as part of their teaching for many reasons, but often to:

• maintain the flow of the learning within the lesson;
• engage students with the learning; assess what has been learned, and check that what has been learnt is understood and applied; test student memory and comprehension; to initiate individual and collaborative thinking in response to new information; seek the views and opinions of pupils; provide an opportunity for pupils to share their opinions/views, seeking responses from their peers; encourage creative thought and imaginative or innovative thinking;
• foster speculation, hypothesis and idea/opinion forming;
• create a sense of shared learning and avoid the feel of a 'lecture';
• challenge the level of thinking and possibly mark a change to a higher order of thinking; model higher order thinking using examples and building on the responses of students.

All the following examples and many others are useful and necessary within different classroom situations. They help teachers move students from simple responses, to engage in more developed complex thinking. This helps them apply what they understand, to bridge learning from other times and different situations, to think more actively in lessons and learn from the answers given by other students.

Ged Gast Creativity Consultant 1Questioning approaches e.g. 'thinking time', the 'no hands' rule and `phone a friend'

712 10 4 8 165.

Questioning Strategies and Benefits

Thinking Time Strategy

Strategy/ approach Thinking Time: Consciously waiting for a pupil or class to think through an answer (before you break the silence) e.g 15-30secs

Process Provide time between setting the question and requiring an answer. Sometimes alerting pupils to the approach and the time available to develop an answer.

Gains and benefits Prompts depth of thought and increases levels of challenge. Ensures all pupils have a view or opinion to share before an answer is sought.

Time Out Strategy

Time Out: Time for thinking and talking

Time provided for thinking and talking partners, before seeking answers.

Pupils have thinking time, actively think and collaborate to form answers.

No Hands Questioning Strategy

No Hands Questioning: Using the 'no hands up' rule Ref. AfL publication - Working Inside the Black Box.

Pupils aware that those required to give an answer, will be selected by the teacher. Teachers alert them to this as questions are asked. Linked to 'thinking time'.

Improves engagement and challenges all pupils to think. When linked to Thinking Time, pupils share ideas and 'position' their own views in relation to others.

Basketball Questioning Strategy

Basketball questioning: Move questions and discussions between pupils

Teacher establishes movement of ideas and responses around the class. Builds on other pupils' ideas and comments. Accepts 'half-formed' ideas. NB not 'ping-pong'

Engages more pupils. Stops teacher being focus for all questioning. Develops connected thinking and development of ideas.

Conscripts and Volunteers Strategy

Conscripts and Volunteers: Using a planned mix of 'conscripts' and 'volunteers'

Teacher selects answers from those who volunteer an answer and an equal amount of those who do not.

Enhances engagement and challenge for all.

Phone a Friend Strategy

Phone a friend: Removes stress to enable those who cannot answer to participate

Those who cannot answer are allowed to nominate a fellow pupil to suggest an answer on their behalf, but they still have to provide their own answer, perhaps building on this.

Encourages whole-class listening and participation. Removes stress and builds self-esteem.

Hot-seating Strategy

Hot-seating: A pupil is placed in the 'hot-seat' to take several questions from the class and teacher.

Encourages listening for detail and provides challenge

Mantle of the Expert Strategy

Mantle of the expert: A wears the cloak of the expert to answer questions from the class.

Builds self-esteem through opportunity to share detailed knowledge.

Previewing Questions Strategy

Preview: Previewing questions in advance

Questions are shared/displayed before being asked, or the start of the lesson.

Signals the big concepts and learning of the lesson

Pair Rehearsal Strategy

Pair rehearsal: of an answer or a question

Pairs of pupils are able to discuss and agree responses to questions together.

Encourages interaction, engagement and depth

Eavesdropping for Targeted Questions

Eavesdropping: Deploying specific targeted questions

Listen in to group discussions and target specific questions to groups and individuals.

Facilitates informed differentiation.

5Ws Modeling Strategy

5Ws: Modeling simple exploratory questions to gather information

Teacher models the use of Who, What, Where, When and Why to set out a simple information gathering response based on the information provided.

Encourages students to rehearse enquiry and comprehension, can extend into reasoning and hypothesis. Creates an inquisitive disposition and a thinking or self reflective approach to learning.

Eavesdropping for Differentiation

Eavesdropping: Deploying specific targeted questions

Listen in to group discussions and use this to target specific questions to particular groups and individuals.

Facilitates informed differentiation as teachers use what they overhear to modify planning and further questioning.

Ged Gast Creativity Consultant 2Strategy/approach

High Challenge Questioning

High Challenge Strategy

High Challenge: Phrasing questions carefully to concentrate on Bloom's Taxonomy higher challenge areas

Process Questions must be pre-planned, as very difficult to invent during a lesson. Focus questions to address analysis, synthesis, evaluation and creativity, based on Bloom's Taxonomy.

Gains and benefits Provides high challenge thinking, requiring more careful thought, perhaps collaborative thinking and certainly longer more detailed answers. For Able, Gifted and Talented.

Staging or Sequencing Questions

Staging or sequencing: questions with increasing levels of challenge

Increasing the level of challenge with each question, moving from low to higher-order questioning

Helps pupils to recognise the range of possible responses and to select appropriately.

Big Questions Strategy

Big questions: The setting of a substantial and thought provoking question

Big questions cannot be easily answered by students when the question is posed. They are often set at the beginning of the lesson and can only be answered by the end of the lesson, using all of the thinking based on all of the contributions to the lesson.

These questions develop deeper and more profound thinking. Big Questions are often moral issues or speculative questions such as, Where are we from? How big is the universe? What is the meaning of life? They require extended answers and usually rely on collaborative thinking and a personal interpretation of the information provided.

Focus Questioning Strategy

Focus questioning: This will help students to answer bigger questions

When students struggle to answer bigger or more complex questioning, the teacher can model or lead the thinking by asking Focus questions to lead the student through the steps of the thinking.

Develops confidence and the sequencing of small steps in thinking and response. Allows students to reveal the stages in their thinking.

Fat Questions Strategy

Fat questions: Seeking a minimum answer

Pupils are not allowed to answer a question using less than e.g. 15 words or using a particular word or phrase. They must give an extended answer or make a complete sentence/phrase.

Develops speaking and reasoning skills, the correct use of critical and technical language. Fosters the phrasing of more extended or complex sentences containing the correct language or terms - Essential for examination preparation.

Skinny Questions Strategy

Skinny questions A traditional approach to Q&A asking everyday questions with a fixed or specific answer

Linked to 'close' questioning In its simplest form, students can answer yes or no to a skinny question, or give a number or knowledge based response.

Challenge level is low in skinny questions that do not seek and extended answer or reasons for the answer. Mostly knowledge and comprehension based. Does not develop thinking or reasoning.

Signal Questions Strategy

Signal questions: Providing signals to pupils about the kind of answer that would best fit the question being asked. Teacher responds to pupils attempt to answer, by signaling and guiding the answers.

The essence of purposeful questioning, moving pupils from existing knowledge or experience (often unsorted or unordered knowledge) to organized understanding, where patterns and meaning have been established.

Seek a Partial Answer Strategy

Seek a partial answer: In the context of asking difficult whole class questions, deliberately ask a pupil who will provide only a partly formed answer, to promote collective engagement.

Excellent for building understanding from pupil-based language. Can be used to lead into 'Basketball questioning'. Develops self-esteem, whilst moderating the level of risk.

Developing Key Questions Strategy

Developing 'Key' Questions: Teachers encourage students to identify their own essential or 'Key' questions that should be asked.

Encourages students to form and prioritise the most essential questions to be asked when analysing information.

Many of these questioning strategies and approaches are taken from the National Secondary Strategy for School Improvement, The 'Questioning' guidance from the Pedagogy and Practice Pack materials and the Assessment for Learning Handbook, or from the work of members of the AfL team including Paul Black and Christine Harrison at King's College, London.

Ged Gast Creativity Consultant 3