The Art of Questioning
I encourage questions from my students and ask them "Open ended" questions to get them to think about a subject. I like to use terms like "Why does it work that way" or "Explain the steps necessary to accomplish the task and why is it necessary to follow that procedure" for example. This method gets them to think deeper about the subject and therefore retain the subject matter easier and longer. It also gets a good forum discussion.
Hi Kristen - thanks for your post to the forum. I agree that it is often important to ask students to expand on their answers and take things to the next level. It does not need to be the student who supplied the initial response.
Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
I will often ask students to intuitively answer a question whether it is right or wrong. Then we discuss why our intuition is either right or wrong and how we can pull from our readings to bolster our thinking.
Hi Lisa- Until we, as instructors, actually got into the classroom I think most of us also thought that "thoughtful nodding" was all we needed to do! (-; Susan
I absolutely agree. There is also huge value in asking follow-up questions. A couple of months ago, a student wanted to lead discussion for a poem in my class. I don't think he realized how difficult it is to build effective discussion. He thought that it was mostly involved nodding thoughtfully and asking "what do you think about the poem?" I think it was an effective exercise for all of the students. I also used it as an opportunity to discuss effective leadership.
Hi Donald- Thanks for your post to the forum. You are using questioning very effectively- Great work! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
