RESOURCES
Reflection, practice and evaluation
Reflection
- Why do you ask questions in your classroom?
- What kinds of questions do you ask?
- In your classroom, who is doing most of the talking? Who is doing most of the thinking? Is this how things should be?
- What use do you make of student responses to questions that you or students ask in your classroom?
- Consider the range of cultures present in your classroom. Are there cultural considerations that you need to take into account when questioning your students or encouraging them to ask questions?
- Thinking about gender issues: in your classroom which gender is more likely to be asked questions? What kinds of questions are asked of boys? What kinds of questions are asked of girls?
Practice
Ask a colleague to use the audit sheet in order to identify what questioning practices occur in your classroom.
Evaluation
Use the results to answer the following questions:
- What kind of questions do you ask most frequently - open or closed?
- Do you ask questions that demand higher-order thinking?
- Are you employing wait time and hands down when appropriate?
- Are you prompting students to further responses?
- Do you ask students to build on each other's answers?
- Are you distributing questions around the class (and equally between the genders, if relevant)?
- Are you acknowledging student responses in a positive manner?
- Do students ask questions? What kinds?
Do you think there is a need to change your questioning practices? What might you focus on and why?
