Effective Questioning in the Classroom

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Effective Questioning in the Classroom

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Picture this... You are sitting in a classroom of 20-something other students. The room is hot and humid and you would rather be anywhere else in the world but where you are sitting at that very moment. The teacher just goes on and on. With no change in his voice, with no change in speaking pattern, the teacher just keeps lecturing. What is he even saying, you wonder? You wish there was a way you could get back into the classroom discussion but the teacher's lecturing prevents your participation. You feel your learning is stunted and has stalled. What can you do, your learning seems to be in the teacher's control?

Now picture this... a room full of students interacting and responding with the instructor. Students are excited and eager to answer the professor's throught-provoking and inspiring questions. Even if you tune out for a moment, the teacher throws another question in the air as bait, you grab onto it and are back in the swing of learning again. The questions are all based around the content material for the day, but for some reason, you are just captivated by the day's learning and feel that your participation has not only added to your own personal learning, but the classroom question and answer session helped other students learn from one another. You think to yourself, this is what learning should be!

Questions in the classroom are the cornerstone of education. They provide the stimulus for critical thought and deep-level understanding. Questions engage and excite the learner while providing them with new insights and ideas about the material being learned.

This course was designed to expose students to the merits and benefits of using questions in the classroom. The course has been split up into several units, the first detailing the value and signifance of questions in the classroom, the second explores what is required of a learner when he encounters a question, the third discusses questioning methodlogy and the final unit delves into how one designs an effective question given his learning environment.

The goal of this course is to provide the learners with the tools they need to be effective classroom teachers and facilitators. While there are many approaches to teaching and learning, few have proved as successful as the question. By questioning students, teachers demand of their learners higher order thinking skills and critical thought, the tools necessary for productive learning and the tools that are critical when it comes to being a 21st Century citizen.

To begin the course, begin with Unit One and proceed all the way through Unit Four.

Pencilbullet.gifUnit One: Why Use the Question in the Classroom?

Pencilbullet.gifUnit Two: What Does Questioning Demand of the Learner?

Pencilbullet.gifUnit Three: How Should an Educator Question his Students?

Pencilbullet.gifUnit Four: How Does an Instructor Design an Effective Question?

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