5 Techniques for Effective Questioning

Good teaching practice is responsive. It is not directed by the teacher’s preferences or interests, but rather is guided by the emerging needs of the students. In order for good practice to take place, teachers must implement systems that unearth reliable and useful data as regards students’ current levels of ability, and perhaps even more importantly, identify the misconceptions that are preventing further growth. This premise underpins authentic formative assessment. By creating tasks and activities that accurately measure a student’s current stage of development, we can design our practice so as to better address the errors that are hindering their progress.

However, formative assessment need not be limited to pen-and-paper-based activities. Students’ levels of understanding are dynamic and fluid, changing lesson to lesson, task to task. Therefore, in order to optimise our practice, we must employ assessment methods that are easy to design, simple to conduct, and provide us with valuable information that can be used to guide future teaching.

This is where questioning comes in. When carefully crafted and posed skilfully, asking students questions in class can shine a light into the darkest corners of the room, offering an insight into students’ levels of knowledge while detecting misconceptions that we would otherwise be oblivious to. Below are five techniques that can help ensure questioning is as valuable for the teacher as it is for the student.

1. Mine for Misconceptions — Dig Deeper

Incorrect answers are rooted in misconceptions. Identifying that an answer is incorrect is helpful, as it indicates that a misconception exists. However, a wrong answer does not provide details as regards the misconception, and is more akin to a symptom than a cure. Knowledge is built upon prior knowledge, and issues at any stage in the process of knowledge construction can cause complications at a later date. Hence, mining for misconceptions after having asked questions can help us get to the root cause of the problem, which we can then attempt to remedy in future lessons.

In Action…

A reading comprehension text stated that a family shared a ‘common garden’ with their neighbours. Students were required to answer an in your own words question, paraphrasing a sentence that referred to the garden. When a student was nominated to answer the question, she stated that the garden was ‘normal’, which was incorrect. Seeking to identify the misconception that had caused this incorrect answer, the teacher asked the student which word she considered normal to be a synonym of, to which she responded ‘common’. The teacher explained that in alternative contexts, common can be considered a synonym of normal. However, in this case, the term common is closer to shared or collective. By means of this dialogue, the student’s misconception (which, it turned out, was shared by a number of her peers) was both identified and addressed, and the direction of the lesson was adjusted to ensure that her needs were met.

2. Think Time

When we put a question to students in class and seek an answer immediately, we are assessing far more than just their understanding of the topic. By introducing the pressure of time, we add an affective aspect to the question, which means we are really seeking students who not only understand the question, but who also have the confidence to answer immediately in front of their peers. Complex questions can rarely be answered instantaneously. In order for responses to be an accurate reflection of students’ comprehension, we must provide a reasonable period of time for contemplation prior to seeking an answer. In order to offer students a further opportunity to check their answers prior to responding in front of the class, Think, Pair, Share is a useful strategy. This involves posing a question to students, allocating a period of thinking time for individual reflection, and then instructing students to share their responses with a partner. This way, students can ‘test’ their answers with a peer before ‘going public’ in front of the class.

In Action…

In a previous lesson, the idiom ‘his heart is not in it’ was discussed in class. In order to create an opportunity for retrieval practice as part of a starter activity, the teacher asked the students to explain the meaning of the idiom. Instead of seeking immediate responses, the teacher allocated 45 seconds silent, individual thinking time before guiding students to turn to their partners and share their response. After a minute or so of discussion, the teacher redirects attention to the front of the room, before calling upon one student to share their answer with the class.

3. Cold-Calling

If, as previously mentioned, in-class questioning is considered to be a valuable source of data about students’ understanding of a topic, it is important that teachers question as wide a range of students as possible so as to get an extensive sample of student ability. Seeking volunteers to answer questions favours a certain type of student: those who are confident enough to speak up in class or those who have clearly understood the topic. Students who are less confident or shy rarely volunteer, which limits their participation and prevents the teacher from assessing their level of understanding. That is why cold-calling, or no hands up, is an effective way to ensure both wider participation and data that is more reflective of the entire class. Instead of seeking volunteers, all questions are directed to students that the teacher selects, which permits the teacher to assess the understanding of identified students at any time. However, cold-calling must be embedded within a positive and supportive classroom culture. It is crucial to explain why this approach to questioning has been chosen, and to ensure that students realise that getting a question wrong is not a disaster. It is also important not to allow ‘I don’t know’ as an answer, as once students realise that opting out is an option, the technique soon falls apart. Instead, if a student struggles to answer the question, scaffold and guide, rephrasing the question so as to ensure that some kind of contribution can be made, even if it is not the one you were looking for. When students understand that a cold-calling questioning strategy is in place, you will notice higher levels of attention, as knowing that they may be called on to answer a question at any time stimulates greater focus on the lesson content. I frequently combine think time with cold-calling, to ensure that students have time to reflect on the question before being asked to share their thoughts. Once this technique is employed on a few occasions, it becomes a classroom routine, and students come to expect questions to be delivered in this manner.

In Action

As part of the O Level English Language summary task, students were required to identify three opinions in a text. A number of students suggested that the sentence ‘opponents of the plan believe that an alternative idea should be implemented’ constituted an opinion. It did not feature on the answer key. The teacher revealed that this sentence was not an opinion, and then allocated 90 seconds for students to discuss in pairs why this sentence was not an opinion. Having circulated as the discussions were taking place, the teacher identified two pairs who had reached a correct understanding. When the think time was complete, the teacher called upon a number of pairs one after the other to share their understanding, each of which contributed useful ideas. Then, the teacher selected one of the two pairs that had correctly answered the question during the discussion phase, and an accurate answer was shared with the class. The questioning enabled students to generate and share knowledge together, and also ensured that all students in the class were attentive and involved, as they were aware that they could be questioned at any time.

4. Ask Hinge Questions

Knowledge is built upon prior knowledge. The process of knowledge construction is obstructed when foundational information is not accurately understood. A student cannot move on to more complex tasks until the basics of an idea have been comprehended, and therefore both the pace of a lesson and the content of subsequent lessons should be dictated by what students have successfully learnt. Therefore, it is necessary to check student comprehension before moving on to new content. One way of doing this is by incorporating Hinge Questions into lessons. Just as a door swings on a hinge, the direction of a lesson depends on whether the Hinge Question is correctly answered. Hinge Questions are best inserted at transition points in a lesson. When one idea/task/activity has been completed, a Hinge Question assesses whether students have understood the target information, providing insight into whether it is time to move on or whether the content must be covered again. A Hinge Question should be shaped before the lesson, as thinking it up on the spot can result in confusing questions that do not accurately measure students’ comprehension. Hinge Questions are usually multiple choice, which offers instantly accessible data as regards students’ levels of understanding.

In Action

As part of a directed writing lesson, students worked on writing topic sentences. After introducing students to the concept of a topic sentence, providing examples of topic sentences, and having students identify topic sentences in a series of short paragraphs, the teacher wished to check whether students had understood the role of topic sentences before moving on to a writing task. The following Hinge Question was displayed via the projector:

The purpose of a topic sentence is…

1. To provide examples of the key point of the paragraph.
2. To bring the paragraph to a close.
3. To introduce the key point of the paragraph.
4. To introduce the key point of the essay.

Students answered this question by indicating their answer using their fingers, a method described in detail below. As all members of the class got the question correct, it was evident that the teacher could begin instructing students how to write topic sentences. However, the teacher had a recap task ready for students should the Hinge Question not have been answered correctly.

5. Ask the Whole Class

After presenting new information to students, it is crucial that teachers ask concept checking questions to ensure the target knowledge has ‘landed’. It is common practice for teachers to pose a question to the class before seeking a volunteer to answer it. A correct answer is sufficient evidence that the students understand the idea, and the lesson continues. This is problematic. If the teacher’s class contains 20 students, one correct answer represents 5% of the class. What about the remaining 95% whose understanding has not been checked? Is it fair to assume that because one student (or even two or three) can answer the question, the rest of the class share the same level of comprehension? Probably not. Hence, it is crucial to develop questioning techniques that enable us to put questions to all members of the class at the same time. There are multiple ways of doing this. For short answer written questions, mini whiteboards are useful. Once the question has been posed, provide students with a defined period of time to write their answers on the whiteboards. Then, ask students to raise their whiteboards on the count of three so as to avoid students quickly amending their answers when they see their peers’ work. Multiple choice questions can be responded to using traffic light cards, a set of which were provided to my school many years ago by Cfbt. Project or display the question and possible answers clearly, and then provide clearly defined thinking time for students to generate an answer. If the question is a Hinge Question, the thinking time should not involve time to consult with a peer, as we are looking for evidence that each individual student has understood. Then, instruct all students to raise their traffic light cards at the same time (yellow for A, red for B, green for C), and measure how well students have understood the topic. However, distributing mini whiteboards and traffic light cards can be time consuming, and so my preferred method is using a more accessible resource, students’ fingers. I will explain this technique below.

In Action

As part of a series of lessons that focused on students practising how to infer the meaning of unknown words from context, the teacher focused on prefixes. Following a presentation phase and a series of practice activities revolving around the prefixes de-, a-, pre-, and -sub, the teacher wished to establish whether these terms had been understood prior to introducing further prefixes. A series of Hinge Questions were displayed via the projector, and students were instructed to respond to these questions individually using their fingers. Answer i) would be indicated by raising one finger on the right hand, answer ii) by raising two fingers, and answer iii) by raising three fingers. One question was as follows:

Which of the following words refers to the department of a hospital that pregnant mothers attend?

1. Subnatal
2. Prenatal
3. Denatal

On the count of three, all students raise their hands at the same time, indicating their answers. From these signals, the teacher can establish how well students have understood the target prefixes, and decide whether further practice is required.

​By implementing these relatively simple questioning techniques, it is hoped that teachers will be able to access a previously hidden pool of data which can better inform teaching practice going forward. By designing our instruction around the needs of our students, we can directly address the challenges that prevent learning, subsequently resulting in enhanced learning outcomes. Should anyone wish to discuss these techniques with me, I would be more than happy to do so.