Does it matter what kinds of questions we ask our students? Do they challenge students’ intellect, broaden their understanding of the topic at hand, and further their curiosity and level of engagement? What must you consider when thinking of questions to ask, and who to ask them to?
Cyber Community Blog
A Home for SLSS and McNair TC's and SA's
Looking at Bloom’s Taxonomy is a great way to learn about the many different levels of questioning. It can also provide you with a number of guiding verbs to help you in creating critical thinking questions that challenge your students.
Also helpful is to know how you question. What I mean by this is are you aware of who you are asking? Are you only asking the students who put up their hands or are you making sure everyone is having input into the discussion? Do you favor one side of the classroom over the other, or do you primarily let the keener students up at the front of the class answer while letting the rest of the students remain anonymous?
Asking questions of the class and guiding them by relating it back to material that we learned to jog their memory worked best for me in questioning techniques. Its informal and easier for the class to answer together and not feel pressured or put on the spot. On the other hand that also leaves many students who get away with not staying engaged which is where directing questions and asking students for what they think or an example they can give you to help answer the question works best. Like for instance in Law asking students to explain a new term or notes they took by relating it to a movie, television show or real life incident they have know/heard about to make answering the question fun and providing an answer that shows that they understand and can relate it to something that is applicable in their life.