Inquiry learningHow do we support inquiry learning?

Tool ID-1: Classroom questioning discussion

Overview

Aim: to think about the questions teachers ask, and for what purposeWe will:• Discuss questioning as a group;• Work in pairs to think about classroom

practices.

Questioning

• What different types of questions do teachers ask?

• What different functions do teachers’ questions serve?

• Which types of questions are asked frequently?• What common mistakes may be made when

asking questions?

Think – pair- share

Discuss together:• Different kinds of questions• Functions of questions• Questions used most often• Common mistakes and their

effects

Reasons for asking questions

• To interest, engage and challenge;• To assess prior knowledge and understanding;• To stimulate recall, in order to create new understanding and

meaning;• To focus thinking on the most important concepts and issues;• To help students extend their thinking from the factual to the

analytical;• To promote reasoning, problem solving, evaluation and the

formation of hypotheses;• To promote students’ thinking about the way they have

learned;• To help students to see connections.

Research conclusions

Read the extract from the work of Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam “Inside the Black Box Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment. In this they present the results of their extensive survey of the literature into assessment in education. They found that much of this focuses on classroom assessment by teachers of pupils’ learning. In relation to questioning they conclude that the literature suggests…

Common mistakes

• Asking too many trivial or irrelevant questions.• Asking a question and answering it yourself.• Simplifying the question when students don’t immediately respond.• Asking questions of only the most able or likeable students.• Asking several questions at once.• Asking only closed questions that allow one right/wrong possible answer.• Asking ‘guess what is in my head’ questions, where you know the answer

you want to hear and you ignore or reject answers that are different.• Judging every student response with ‘well done’, ‘nearly there’ ‘not quite’.

‘Well done’ can discourage alternative ideas being offered.• Not giving students time to think or discuss before responding.• Ignoring incorrect answers and moving on.

© Centre for Research in Mathematics Education, University of Nottingham 2013 - 2014

Finishing off

Tool ID-2(T) will provide further opportunities to explore the use of questioning in IBL approaches