Questioning Skills in

the Language and

Literature Class
Ms. Shiela Aringo
Importance of Teacher Questioning Skills

Could you live without asking

questions in the classroom? Why do
you think questioning skills are
extremely important to teachers?
Stages students go through to
produce a response

Whenever teachers ask questions,

students go through the following
stages before they are able to answer
a question.
 Attending to the question
 Deciphering the meaning of the question
 Generating a covert response (i.e., formulating
a response in one's mind)
 Generating an overt response; and often
 Revising the response (based on teacher
probing or other feedback)
Levels of Questioning

Classroom questions may be

classified into several levels
from the low inquiry to the
higher inquiry types.
Sanders

Four of the categories; Application,

Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation
are the same as those in Bloom's
classification of cognitive objectives.
Sanders

Memory was placed instead of Knowledge

In place of Comprehension, Sanders has
two separate categories, Translation and
Interpretation.
Sanders

Translation
refers to changing a
communication into a new form.

Example:
"What idea is expressed in the picture?"
Sanders

Interpretation questions require

students to relate information of different
kinds facts, concepts, and generalizations.
Example:
Compare the effects of technology in rural
areas to the effects in urban areas.
Pate and Bremer

Convergent questions have only one

possible answer.
"What are the three branches of the
federal government?"
Pate and Bremer

Divergent questions have more than one

possible answer.
"Should federal income taxes be increased?
Why or why not“?
carner
Concrete questions show special concern
for what is observable and tangible.
"What services do policemen provide for
the community?"
carner
Abstract questions, requiring more
complex mental activity, cause students to
generalize, classify, and relate.
"What are the similarities of the Soviet and
American economic systems?"
carner
Creative questions represent the highest
level of complexity. These questions are
characterized by both concrete and
abstract applications.
"What are the possible courses of action
that the United States might take to
alleviate the problems of poverty?"
Bloom’s Taxonomy Anderson’s Taxonomy
 Knowledge -  Remembering: Retrieving,
Remembering recognizing, and recalling
previously learned relevant knowledge from
material, e.g., long-term memory.
definitions, concepts,
principles, formulas.
Bloom’s Taxonomy Anderson’s Taxonomy
 Comprehension -  Understanding:
Understanding the Constructing meaning from
meaning of oral, written, and graphic
remembered messages through
material, usually interpreting, exemplifying,
demonstrated by classifying, summarizing,
explaining in one's inferring, comparing, and
own words or citing explaining.
examples.
Bloom’s Taxonomy Anderson’s Taxonomy
 Application - Using  Applying: Carrying out or
information in a new using a procedure through
context to solve a
executing, or
problem, to answer a
question, or to perform implementing.
another task. The
information used may be
rules, principles,
formulas, theories,
concepts, or procedures.
Bloom’s Taxonomy Anderson’s Taxonomy
 Analysis - Breaking a  Analyzing: Breaking
piece of material into material into constituent
its parts and parts, determining how
explaining the the parts relate to one
relationship between another and to an overall
the parts. structure or purpose
through differentiating,
organizing, and
attributing.
Bloom’s Taxonomy Anderson’s Taxonomy
 Synthesis- Putting  Evaluating: Making
parts together to judgments based on
form a new whole, criteria and standards
pattern or structure. through checking and
critiquing.
Bloom’s Taxonomy Anderson’s Taxonomy
 Evaluation - Using a  Creating:Putting
set of criteria, elements together to form
established by the a coherent or functional
student or specified whole; reorganizing
by the Teacher, to elements into a new
arrive at a reasoned pattern or structure
judgment. through generating,
planning, or producing.
A
N
D
E
R
S
O
N
’
S
Lower and Higher Level Questions

At times instead of referring to a specific

level of the taxonomy people refer to "lower-
level" and "higher-level" questions or
behaviors.
Lower and Higher Level Questions

 Lower level questions are those

at the knowledge,
comprehension, and simple
application levels of the
taxonomy.
Usually questions at the lower levels are
appropriate for:

 evaluating students' preparation and

comprehension.
 diagnosing students' strengths and
weaknesses.
 reviewing and/or summarizing content.
Lower and Higher Level Questions
 Higher-level questions are those
requiring complex application
(e.g., analysis, synthesis, and
evaluation skills).
Questions at higher levels of the taxonomy
are usually most appropriate for:

 encouraging students to think more deeply

and critically
 problem solving
 encouraging discussions
 stimulating students to seek information on
their own
Open/Divergent and
Closed/Convergent
Questions
Open/Divergent and Closed/Convergent
Questions (A CLARIFICATION)

Generally, teachers believe

that closed questions are low
level ones, while open
questions are high level ones.
Open/Divergent and Closed/Convergent
Questions (A CLARIFICATION)

 Closed/Convergent question - there are a

limited number of acceptable answers, most
of which will usually be anticipated by the
Teacher.
 Open/Divergent question - there are many
acceptable answers, most of which will not be
anticipated by the Teacher.
Both open and closed questions may be at
any level of the taxonomy.

An open low-level question might be:

"What is an example of an adjective?"
An open high-level question might be:
"What are some ways we might solve the
energy crisis?"
Both open and closed questions may be at
any level of the taxonomy.

A closed low-level question:

 "What is an adjective?" (Recall question that
requires one answer)
 A closed high-level question:
 What is the adverbial in the given sentence below?
(Analysis question that requires one answer)
Guidelines for Classroom
Questioning
Guidelines for Classroom
Questioning
Incorporate questioning into classroom
teaching/learning practices.
Ask questions which focus on the salient
elements in the lesson; avoid questioning
students about extraneous matters.
Guidelines for Classroom
Questioning
When teaching students factual material,
keep up a brisk instructional pace,
frequently posing lower cognitive questions.
With older and higher ability students, ask
questions before (as well as after) material is
read and studied.
Guidelines for Classroom
Questioning
 Question younger and lower ability students only
after material has been read and studied.
 Ask a majority of lower cognitive questions when
instructing younger and lower ability students.
Structure these questions so that most of them will
elicit correct responses.
 Ask a majority of higher cognitive questions when
instructing older and higher ability students.
Guidelines for Classroom
Questioning
 Insettings where higher cognitive questions are
appropriate, teach students strategies for
drawing inferences.
 Keep wait-time to about three seconds when
conducting recitations involving a majority of
lower cognitive questions.
Guidelines for Classroom
Questioning
 Increase wait-time beyond three seconds when
asking higher cognitive questions.
 Be particularly careful to allow generous amounts
of wait-time to students perceived as lower
ability.
Guidelines for Classroom
Questioning
Use redirection and probing as part of
classroom questioning and keep these focused
on salient elements of students' responses.
Avoid vague or critical responses to student
answers during recitations.
Guidelines for Classroom
Questioning
During recitations, use praise sparingly and
make certain it is sincere, credible, and
directly connected to the students'
responses.
Activity!
Questioning
Strategies
Reinforcement
 The Teacher can reinforce by making positive
statements and using positive nonverbal
communication.
 Proper nonverbal responses include smiling,
nodding, and maintaining eye contact, while
improper nonverbal responses include looking at
notes while students speak, looking at the board or
ruffling papers.
Reinforcement

 Thetype of reinforcement provided will be

determined by:
The correctness of the answer
The number of times a student has responded
Probe
Ask probing questions to make students
explore initial comments.
Probes are useful in getting students
more involved in critical analysis of their
own and other students' ideas.
Example:

 Teacher: What do you think about what the Wolf

did to the Second Little Pig?
 Student: I think the Wolf is really bad after all.
 Teacher: Why do you think so?
Adjust/Refocus
 When students provide responses which appear
out of context, ask refocusing questions to
encourage them to link their responses to the
content being discussed. This technique is also
used to shift attention to a new topic.
Example:

 Teacher: Why was the Wolf explaining his side of

the story?
 Student 1: I guess he wants to show what really
happened.
 Teacher: OK, but let’s look at the last part of the
story. What could be his real motive for
speaking up and defending himself?
Redirect.
 When a student responds to a question, the teacher
can ask another student to comment on his
statement. One purpose of using this technique is to
enable more students to participate. This strategy can
also be used to allow a student to correct another
student's incorrect statement or respond to another
student's question.
Redirect.
 Teacher: Joshua, do you agree with Jake’s
comment?
 Teacher: From your experience, Roger, does what
Carol say seem true?
 Teacher: Jaine, can you give me an example of
the concept that Andrei mentioned?
Rephrase.
This technique is used when a student
provides an incorrect response or no
response. Instead of telling the student she
is incorrect or calling upon another student,
the Teacher can try one of three strategies:
Rephrase.
Example:
Teacher: How would you characterize the
wolf?
Student 1: (No response).
Teacher: Can you describe the wolf in
the story?