Who Can Ask Questions?

Questions are a frequent feature of speech in classrooms, whether from the teacher or the student, so it is important that we use our questions effectively to promote learning and progress.

Generally, we assume that it is the role of the teacher to ask the questions in the classroom; this could be in the form of checking for knowledge and understanding or challenging inappropriate behaviour.

As educators we automatically pose questions to enquire how far students have understood a topic, or alternatively to check up on well-being and behaviour.

However, it is not just the teacher’s role to pose questions.

Students often ask questions – they may be asking for help with a topic or activity, they may be trying to distract you by asking questions not associated with the learning at all!

Therefore, it is important that we are alert to the subject of questioning and how questions are used in our classrooms.

Students asking questions is a very effective learning tool when used in the correct manner.

Aside from the formative assessment of understanding, we can and should encourage questioning from our students as a way to develop their understanding.

It may be through tasks such as pair work, where students use peer assessment to check each other’s understanding.

It may be through an investigative task that you have set them where students pose their own questions/research topics in order to present information in a detailed and organised way.

Therefore, we must encourage the use or questioning in our classroom by incorporating it as a strategy and method in our lesson planning, whether it is the teacher using questioning as a tool to check understanding or whether it is the student using questioning to develop their own learning.

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