It is definitely a challenge to get students to think “deeper” during class discussions. Often many students are so eager to participate in conversations, but they havent really thought about their answers. You can ask them questions like “How do you think the boy felt about that?” and many will answer “Happy”. As students grow older, you want them to think a bit more critically, but getting them to do that is not simple.
I think it is important to pose questions that look for multiple points of answer, and to leave questions open ended. Here are some examples.
- Explain how/why…
- Describe how/why…
- In what ways…
- How do you know that…
Other things to consider are to provide wait time after questioning, and allowing student to think/pair/share before answering questions.
I think I still have a lot to learn about deepening students answers through my questioning as it is still hard for me to answer this myself. It is not straight forward and it frequently very different between subjects.