Asking questions is a daily and often unconscious style of speaking for us, but as teachers asking questions takes on a whole new meaning.
As teachers, we need to re-evaluate the purpose and meaning behind our questions and take into consideration our audience, with more mindfulness and awareness.
So, why do we ask questions?
This is a good starting point before we delve deeper into the act and art of asking questions.
This is the knowledge that we must pass on to our students; that asking questions is vital and is everyone’s responsibility and right: young or old.
On average, as adults, we ask 25-30 questions a day such as “How are you doing?” “Can I help you?” “What would you like to do next?” “What have you understood from that?”
If we really analyse our speech, it is likely we would be extremely surprised at how many questions actually leave our mouth on a day-to-day basis.
As teachers however, it is important to consider the impact of our questions on our younger audience. Our students’ brain capacity is much lower than an adult’s, therefore numerous questions could become overwhelming, which is why we need to be very reflective over of style of speech and delivery in the classroom.
So, again, why do we ask questions as teachers?
There are many reasons for this.
Initially, we may be greeting our students on the door and establishing a warm and friendly learning environment as our students arrive: “Good morning!” “How are you today?”
As our lesson proceeds, we may use questions to assess previous learning and understanding and thus evolve into higher order questions to extend learning: “What do you remember…?” “How did that affect….?”
Occasionally, we may need to challenge unsatisfactory behaviour in the classroom, thus demanding a different style of question: “Can you pay attention, please?” “Where are your answers?”
Most of all though, we need to understand the importance of asking questions on a wider scale and pass that on to our students.
It is vital to question the world around us; to reflect on aspects and challenge where things could be different or even improved. As humans, we absolutely have a responsibility to question all the things that our happening around us, whether it is affecting us personally or on a larger scale.
This is the knowledge that we must pass on to our students; that asking questions is vital and is everyone’s responsibility and right: young or old.
Improve your questioning skills with Teach2030
Questioning in the Classroom
The “Questioning in the Classroom” series will examine the significance of questioning and questioning techniques in our roles as educators. Questioning takes on a different perspective and emphasis, one in which we need to understand in detail to ensure it becomes an effective teaching tool for us.
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