Hi Mazen - thanks for your post to the forum. You are using some good active questioning techniques!
Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
One of the techniques I use in my field is to ask students for answers to a classroom assignment. I write all (varied) answers on the board and we discuss each response. I either mark through answers that do not work or add a question mark to the ones that might be a possible response. Then we go back through the "question mark" responses to choose the correct answer. By eliminating responses, students become peer instructors by sharing their knowledge of why an answer may be correct and ultimately we agree on the correct response.
Asking questions that I am pretty sure that they know the answers to in order that they can gain confidence with participating and with the material.
Ask them to give me questions that they would like to get answers to which are relevant to the material.
As we discuss certain cases or situations, I ask the students; "What could we do in this situation, to make the outcome different or better?"; "What was done correctly?" and "What was improper or wrong?"
I have them look back at their own personal experiences and have them associate it with the questions.
Susan,
I just typed a lengthy response and lost the data when I hit submit. Let me suffice it to say, I only ask simple and very leading questions. I want to build on what I'm learning here and become proficient at the Socratic method. Thomas posting of "50% of my questions lead to the answer and 50% of my questions lead away from the answer" really intrigued me. I want to learn more, hence the posting and your prompt to ask this. I appreciated Thomas (Apr 2010) indepth posting and wanted to see a concrete example of how he approaches this (using a simple notion for me to follow). Thanks in advance and i hope this goes thru this time!
Honestly it's pretty easy to get students to talk about food but when I find the discussion at a stand still I just ask a general question about what we are doing for example if we are making bread I will ask them to name a good sandwich place and why it was good. Everyone jumps in quickly and I can once again get them enthustiac about the lesson. If you talk about personal favorites, i find that everyone tends to open up and participate quite freely.
Hi Ed - Thanks for your post to the forum. You do describe the ideal learning environment but as you also say - it is not always possible. Best wishes for continued success in your teaching careeer. Susan
I ask 5 students a day to come up with one question each and then ask it at the end of the lecture. We use this as a daily review and it encourages daily participation. They like it!
Create an environment that is free from threats and respectful, and rewards active learning and engagement, in a relaxed atmosphere of mutual respect, but also with motivated learners. But not always easy to do, depending on the subject matter and make up of the class.
Hi Aaron - Thanks for your post to the forum. Students do enjoy some good competition. ( I have fun with it as well!)Nothing better than an active classroom! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
I like to ask the 5W questions, such as who, what, where, when, and why to help get discussion going to explain a situation I also sometimes include the how question for extra clarity. These questions help focus discussion and leads to more critical thinking.
Teams. My students are competitors and enjoy playing against each other. In order for your team to get a point, each student must answer the questions presented to them. Since the majority of the answers are from topics we recently covered, most of my students are pretty good at giving the correct answers. Those who do not get the correct answers are always given another chance to answer.
Hi Klalda- Thanks for your post to the forum. Assessing student familiarity with concepts before lecturing is an excellent practice! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
I ask questions through out the lecture, I even have students prepare some questions to ask their peers at the end of the lesson or lecture
Asking a series of questions and having any one student answer only one of them. This has allowed students who participate less a larger opening to respond and be heard. Also, asking questions about how learned skills would be applied in real world situations gets students involved and excited. This has also seemed to deepen the classes understanding of a subject.
In order to get the students involved in the questioning session I stop in the middle of the lecture and question them on the topic from the beginning of the lecture till the point where I stopped.
Another way that I try to get the student involved is by asking questions on the topic before I start my lecture. I do this because I need to know how much do the student know and how can I alter my lecture so that It could become a class discussion according to their level.
Give a clinical example & see what questions arise
I have found asking specific questions as opposed to broad questions encourage regular discussion during lecture.
