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Questions & Questioning Home |
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Phrasing Techniques |
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Other Techniques |
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Other Techniques
Using silence
Although it is difficult to do, research has shown that using silence
in verbal interactions with students encourages longer and higher quality
responses. Students must have some time to consider questions beyond
the knowledge level. The length of wait time, as it is called in the
literature, is short, three to five seconds (but seems long while you're
waiting!).
Silence 1: After you have asked a question, wait before identifying a student to respond.
Silence 2: Wait again after identifying a student to
respond.
Silence 3: Wait after a student appears to have finished
responding. This is the most difficult, but will often result in the
student adding to, clarifying, or justifying his/her response.
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Using Silence: |
Reinforcement
Traditional verbal ("right," "good")
and nonverbal (e.g., nodding, writing on the board) reinforcements are appropriate
when students are beginning with new content in order to encourage effort.
But using these all of the time makes the students too dependent on
the teacher's assessment.
Recognizing thinking is more appropriate when questions
require students to do more than recall or to consider a divergent/open
question. "That was a comprehensive response." "You provided
two sources of evidence." "The sequence of reasoning is
clear." Such reinforcements can prompt students to pay closer
attention to their own thinking.
Using student answers at a later time in the discussion or lesson is a very powerful type of reinforcement, especially if you can identify the student by name. Incorporate the student's response or expand on it in your own comments or summary. Difficult to do, but no one has ever said that the teacher can't take notes during class.
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Traditional reinforcement: Non-verbal reinforcement: |
Eliciting
The way a teacher indicates who is to respond is called eliciting and
has to do with the sequence of the question and the identification of
the student. In the following, T stands for teacher, Q for question,
S for student, R for response, N for name, and P for pause (silence
or "wait time").
TQ - SR (or multiple SR): Teacher
asks question, anyone responds at will or many students respond at once.
This sequence can lead to the same students repeatedly responding and/or
confusion when several people are talking at once.
N - TQ - SR: How would you like to be on
the hot seat? This also lets other students "off the hook"
and they may not bother to listen to the question and/or think about
a response.
TQ - P - N - P - SR: This is
the preferred sequence as it avoids the problems of the first two sequences.
If your students are not raising their hands and calling out, just ask
them to do so with a simple explanation.
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Eliciting: |
Getting Responses
If students are not responding or only a few do so, try having pairs or trios discuss responses to questions for 30 seconds or so first. You must explain what you are doing and establish a clear stop signal to end group discussion if you do this: "That's a challenging question. Take 30 seconds to discuss it with the person next to you." Look at your watch in an obvious way and at 30 seconds, say "stop" or "time." Or, depending on how animated (or minimal) the discussion is, provide more or less time; lulls tend to be good indicators.
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Complete discussion: |