Asking Effective Questions in the Classroom

I came across an article the other day that talked about asking effective questions in the mathematics classroom. It really opened up my eyes to many of the things that happen in classrooms that are obstacles to student learning and thinking and not promoting learning.

In classrooms today students are expected to create their own learning more and more. In this constructivist classroom the teachers questioning is critical for students to see where they are in the thinking process, see the connections between ideas and to build on their new understanding. They have to do all of this in a way that makes sense to them.

When I was in the classroom I never thought about questioning and this was something I did when I was working with a small group or helping a student that needed a little bit of help. Today, we have to think about the questions that we are going to pose to the students where we are planning the lesson, before we teach the lesson.

Here are eight tips for asking effective questions:

1. Anticipate student thinking
2. Link to learning goals
3. Pose open questions
4. Pose questions that actually need to be answered
5. Incorporate verbs that elicit higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy
6. Pose questions that open up the conversation to include others
7. Keep questions neutral
8. Provide wait time

If you are interested in reading further or want to see some examples and tips to get started follow the link below.

Asking Effective Questions