{"id":14276,"date":"2015-01-30T07:07:42","date_gmt":"2015-01-30T13:07:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/k12teacherstaffdevelopment.com\/tlb\/?p=14276"},"modified":"2019-03-27T14:20:52","modified_gmt":"2019-03-27T19:20:52","slug":"how-can-i-teach-my-students-to-ask-good-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/k12teacherstaffdevelopment.com\/tlb\/how-can-i-teach-my-students-to-ask-good-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"How Can I Teach My Students to Ask Good Questions?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Check<\/a> \"Kindergarten<\/a>Questions represent the beginning time of discovery and innovation. To connect, analyze, and integrate new information, we need to ask questions. So the skill of asking logical questions\u00a0 helps\u00a0 people to think effectively, learn, discover and adapt to changes.<\/p>\n

Why should questions be encouraged in a classroom?<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents\u2019 Questioning\u201d involves them being self-motivated learners where they start comparing new instruction with background knowledge, to synthesize new ideas.<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0 Through questions, students confirm that they understand and are thinking about what they are being taught in the classroom.<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0 They also\u00a0 provide prompt feedback on where teachers need to invest more time.<\/p>\n

Hence \u201cgood questioning\u201c should be a\u00a0 behavior pattern, that all instructors should try\u00a0 to foster in their students.<\/p>\n

Fostering \u201cgood questioning\u201d among students<\/p>\n

Inquiry-based classrooms aim for students to ask their own well-formulated questions, shaped by their background knowledge and individual curiosity. Although effective \u201cteacher-generated questioning\u201d strategies encourage students to think, they do\u00a0 not necessarily help students to become better questioners. In formulating logical and well-considered questions, students need teachers\u2019 guidance and assistance. Let us consider a few tips on how teachers can encourage and help students to ask good questions.<\/p>\n

1. Create an environment where questioning\u00a0 is welcomed and trusted.<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0 Explain to your students that people who ask questions are likely entering new ground.<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0 Reward students for asking a question. Try saying, “That’s a great question” for every new question they ask.<\/p>\n

\u00b7 \u00a0 Throughout your teaching time,\u00a0 leave\u00a0 reasonable gaps for students to think and formulate questions.<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0 Encourage your students to read books and encourage them to ask questions before, during and after reading.<\/p>\n

\u00b7 \u00a0 Give a brief introduction about\u00a0 a difficult concept\u00a0 at the end of your class and ask students to revisit the concept before the next class. This way, students will have time to become familiar with the concept, and will be more inclined to ask questions in the next class.<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0 Allot 2 or 3 days as \u201cInquiry days\u201d during which students can begin classes with their own questions.<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0 Provide students with question generating problems. For example, during the class put a problem on the board and let the students work it in their notes.\u00a0 Provide them the right solution, but not the process of doing it. This is likely to lead to in-depth questions.<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0 Model the types of queries that require deeper thinking and promote them to generate similar questions during classroom activities like read alouds and\u00a0 class discussions.<\/p>\n

2. Teach students how to create good questions.<\/p>\n

Make students aware that the information they receive will depend on the questions they ask. So take time to teach your students\u00a0 the types of questions they can generate and how to\u00a0 generate them effectively. For instance, teach them about \u201cclose and open\u201d ended questions in which closed type questions, get short answers whereas open-ended types allow for longer responses and more data. Likewise, teach them to create their questions by categorizing them as their inquiry, clarification, critical thinking and inference questions.<\/p>\n

The Question Formulation Technique (QFT)<\/p>\n

This technique helps students determine how to create their own questions, improve them, and how to apply them. The QFT has six key steps that help students to think deeply and learn meaningfully.<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0 The Question Focus:\u00a0 At this stage, teachers develop a prompt that focuses students\u2019 questions and present the prompt or the \u201cQFocus\u201d\u00a0 in the statement with optical or audio support. This helps students to explore more expansive ideas. Authors Rothstein and Santana, who formulated this technique give the following example of Qfocus. After teaching the causes of the 1804 Haitian revolution, a teacher presented a Q Focus: \u201cOnce we were slaves. Now we are free.\u201d With this\u00a0 clear and direct thought, the students began formulating and posing questions around this thought; \u201cWhat changed and what stayed the same after the revolution\u201d?<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0 Students generate questions: Students are asked to generate questions, constrained by simple rules like – ask many questions, do not judge the quality of questions, nor pursue any responses. These rules provide a firm structure for students to generate questions\u00a0 in classic \u201cbrainstorming\u201d process, with an open-ended thinking process.<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0 Students Improve Their Questions: In this stage, students have to refine their questions\u00a0 by categorizing and reformulating to make them more focused to provide the desired response. To improve their skill here, they need more practice in changing their questions from one type to another. It could be helpful, if you can assist them in discussing the advantages and disadvantages of each type of questions.<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0 Students Prioritize Their Questions: Based on the lesson goals, teachers have to help students in prioritizing their questions. For this purpose, students need to frame a particular number of\u00a0 questions, within specific criteria and guidelines. This will help them transition from divergent to convergent thinking.<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0 Students and teachers decide the\u00a0 next steps: At this stage, students and teachers work\u00a0 together to review and determine priority questions and then, decide how to use them for learning. For example, these questions can be used\u00a0 for further reading,\u00a0 discussion, and \/or research.<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0 Students Reflect on QFT: According to Rothstein and Santana, \u201cMaking the QFT completely transparent helps students see what they have done and how it contributed to their thinking and learning\u201d. At this stage, teachers and students review what they have learned by generating, improving and prioritizing their questions.<\/p>\n

3. Offer many opportunities for students to practice creating\u00a0 questions<\/p>\n

Once students have acquired a basic understanding of types of questions, guide them to their ‘true’ questions, and provide them with more opportunities to practice creating various types of questions. Include \u201cquestions only\u201d exercises with an element of a game involved in it. For example, at the end of\u00a0 your teaching session, ask your students to write down one question on that particular class. When they realize that everyone has questions, they will be more motivated\u00a0 to ask questions vocally. Also, ensure that you go through the questions and answer them the next day so that they know that their questions are recognized. Classroom exercises like discussions and quizzes can be incorporated to promote generating good and effective questions.<\/p>\n

Discuss Here:\u00a0 How do you create an environment that encourages the culture of asking questions in your classroom?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Questions represent the beginning time of discovery and innovation. To connect, analyze, and integrate new information, we need to ask questions. So the skill of asking logical questions\u00a0 helps\u00a0 people to think effectively, learn, discover and adapt to changes.
\nWhy should questions be encouraged in a classroom?
\n\u201cStudents\u2019 Questioning\u201d involves them being self-motivated learners where […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7626,"featured_media":14277,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[1371,256],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/k12teacherstaffdevelopment.com\/tlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14276"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/k12teacherstaffdevelopment.com\/tlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/k12teacherstaffdevelopment.com\/tlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/k12teacherstaffdevelopment.com\/tlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7626"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/k12teacherstaffdevelopment.com\/tlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14276"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/k12teacherstaffdevelopment.com\/tlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14278,"href":"https:\/\/k12teacherstaffdevelopment.com\/tlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14276\/revisions\/14278"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/k12teacherstaffdevelopment.com\/tlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/k12teacherstaffdevelopment.com\/tlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/k12teacherstaffdevelopment.com\/tlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/k12teacherstaffdevelopment.com\/tlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}