Aspects to consider when asking questions

Hey guys! 👋

Teachers usually ask several questions during a class. This resource  not only makes the class more interactive, but also helps the teacher measure and improve student learning. However, students do not always react in a positive way to them. ❓❓❔❔

Have you ever asked yourself why students do not answer your questions? Or, when they answer them, why sometimes they do not exactly answer what you were asking to them? Maybe we, as teachers, do not always make proper questions. That’s why today we are going to deal with the aspects to consider when doing questions. 

Here there are some issues that you must take into account when asking questions to your students: 

• Before planning questions, decide on their purpose. Questions should have an objective in order to be useful for them and they have to be formulated in a way that allow them to achieve this objective. For example, do you want students to master concepts? Or you want them to develop their critical thinking skills?
• Avoid asking “leading questions”, that is to say, the ones that contain the answer. There is no point in making them since this kind of questions prevent students from thinking on their own.
• Minimise the use of “yes-or- no” questions. These could be useful when checking meaning or understanding but we better do not abuse. In case you use these ones, follow them with an additional question. A good strategy is to ask students to justify their answer as well as to provide evidence or an example.
• Aim for direct, clear, specific questions. It is crucial that students clearly understand what we are asking them.
• Do not ask more than one question at once and give students enough time to think the answer. Waiting some seconds will increase the number of students who volunteer to answer and will lead to longer, more complex answers. Furthermore, another key aspect is not to interrupt students’ answers if we want to reach their highest potential.
• Ask a mix of different types of questions. We should mix “closed” questions, the ones that have a limited number of correct answers, as well as “open” questions which are often the most effective in encouraging opinions, elaboration, discussion and active learning in the classroom. We should also balance the display questions, which are the ones you ask to see if the person you are speaking to knows the answer, with the referential ones, which are the questions you ask someone because you don't know the answer. For example, a display question would be ‘What is the past simple form of begin?' and referential questions could be What did you do yesterday? or Where do you live?
• Balance the individual questions with the general ones. Therefore, personalise questions when possible and also ask questions to the whole class. Besides, try to spread questions randomly around the class and not ask always the same students.

Regarding our responses and reactions to students’ answers, we should show that we are interested in what they are saying, whether right or wrong. We can show interest by nodding, looking at them, and using facial expressions that show we are listening and engaged. When possible, we should try to develop responses that keep students thinking. Another important point is to give appropriate responses to questions, particularly where correction is required.


I hope you will find this post useful. 
See you in the next one! 😘 💕