1. Enumerate and explain the characteristics of good questions
2. Explain the principles that must be observed in the art of questioning Required Activities
1. Library research on the characteristics of good questions 2. Classroom observation with the help of an observation guide 3. Post-classroom observation/discussion
Introduction
Lardizabal, et al., state that one of the teaching tools conveniently placed in the hands of a teacher is the question. And yet too many teachers either use it carelessly or fail to see its possibilities for promoting effective learning. Even with the teaching formula of "assign, study, recite, test," the traditional classroom at all levels was dominated by activities of the question and answer type.
Although the traditional teaching formula has fallen into disrepute in current educational practices, questioning still .remains an indispensable part of good teaching.
There are even some who say that the effectiveness of a teacher can be gauged by his ability to ask good questions.
Skillful questioning involves knowledge of the various uses of the question, the characteristics of a good question, the techniques of questioning, and the techniques of handling students' responses and questions.
Uses of Questions
1. To stimulate pupils to think 2. To motivate pupils
3. To diagnose pupils' difficulties
4. To discover pupils' interests
5. To help pupils organize and evaluate
6. To aid pupils to relate pertinent experiences to the lesson 7. To focus pupils' attention on the key points of the lesson 8. To develop new appreciations and attitudes
9. To provide drill or practice
10. To show relationships, such as cause and effect 11. To encourage the application of concepts 12. To encourage pupil evaluation
1. To stimulate pupils to think. Getting pupils to think intensively about the subject matter is a common problem of teachers. The effective use of thought-provoking questions serves well in this connection if the teacher knows when to raise the question and how to state the question. Emphasis is not upon recall of facts but upon thinking about facts in a meaningful, interrelated way. Factual knowledge is incidental to learning only if it is made meaningful through established tasks with actual situations and experiences.
The thought provoking question is used by teachers in all subjects, although it is probably used more often in such areas as mathematics and social studies, which are concept-centered.
Example:
What good will it do us if we consent to amending the charter? Would you rather go for poll computerization this national election? Why?
2. To motivate pupils. Question can be used effectively to arouse and hold the interest of pupils. Questions must be able to make pupils enthusiastic about learning a new topic, reacting to a story, and discovering more details previously unknown to them. Often, questions are used to motivate as initial part of the lesson. They may, however, be utilized for other purposes like developing good attitude~ toward work in the classroom.
For example, the teacher in a mathematics class may pose the question, "Can you imagine what else can the depreciated peso buy nowadays?"
On taking up a unit on heavenly bodies in grade five, the teacher may start the lesson by asking, "Have you even wondered how the planets revolve around the earth? Are there moonlit nights?"
An example of a motivating question to hold the interest of the class in health education after a unit on health problems has been started may be as follows:
"If you were the doctor, what would you do to help the barrio folks understand the need for cleanliness of surroundings?"
3. To diagnose pupils' difficulties. Questions can be helpful in determining the difficulties of students in any lesson. By using a wide range of question types - objective or subjective, oral or written, thought-provoking or simple - a teacher will be able to obtain a valid appraisal of the pupils' specific weaknesses, indicating what remains to be done to help the pupils. For example, in diagnosing the difficulties of students in the use of the present tense, third person, singular number, the following questions may be asked:
What is referred to as the S form of the verb?
What form of the verb is required by a plural subject in the third person?
4. To discover pupils' interest. Some random questions by the teacher may reveal what children are interested in. By encouraging pupils to raise questions, the teacher will soon find their interests, which are important factors in learning.
Example:
List down some of your favorite hobbies.
What would you prefer, horseback riding or mountain climbing? Why?
5. To develop the ability to organize and evaluate materials or experiences. Through questions, teachers can lead the pupils to evaluate carefully the values or merits of the data gathered and to realize their relative significance.
Example:
Was the King right in abdicating his throne in favor of his cousin?
Do you think parents are to blame for their children's mistakes?
How true is the statement that "Life is pre-destined"?
Aside from developing the ability of the pupils to evaluate, questions can be utilized further to help the pupils organize the data evaluated into a form that makes for larger generalizations. The teacher can formulate questions that will lead pupils to see relationships upon broader interpretation and conclusion. For instance, a teacher may ask the following questions regarding taxes:
Why do people pay taxes?
What do people get in return for paying their taxes?
Why do some people avoid paying taxes?
How does the BIR ensure effective collection of taxes?
6. To aid pupils to relate pertinent experiences to the lesson. Children come to school with varying experiences which may have important bearing in the understanding of a given lesson. To supplement and clarify certain difficult points in a lesson, teachers can draw upon the experiences of the children through the use of questions. For example, in teaching about the different kinds of clouds, the teacher may ask:
Have you ever enjoyed watching the clouds on a bright sunny day? What did you observe?
What happens to these clouds when it is about to rain?
7. To focus pupils' attention on the key points of the lesson. Some kinds of questions can help pupils pick out and remember the main ideas in a lesson. These questions can also help pupils organize their thinking about a lesson in a logical way. For example, in preparing a report about an educational trip made by pupils to the Rizal Park, the teacher may pose these questions:
What about Rizal Park did you find most interesting?
Tell something about it as a historical place, as a national park, and as a tourist spot.
Sometimes the class discussion may wander and become quite unrelated to the main idea of the lesson. In this case, the teacher can pose questions that will reduce the pupils' thinking and direction to the important items in the lesson being discussed. In a math class, for example, if the discussion has strayed from the lesson, a question such as the following might be in order.
Going back to the lesson we are discussing, what are the advantages of paying your dues on time?
How does the school accommodate promissory notes?
8. To develop new appreciations and attitudes. Questions can be used to help pupils modify, clarify, or expand ideas relating to appreciations and attitudes. A well-directed series of questions may awaken or change a certain· type of response to a given situation and thus, condition the response thereafter toward similar ideas or modes of behavior that can develop an appreciation of the beauty of nature, the teacher in literature may ask the following:
What are the basic life realities mentioned in the poem?
Which is the most common? Why?
What does the. . . symbolize in the poem?
9. To provide drill or practice. For certain types of learning, certain facts need to be fixed in the mind. Such facts are necessary either to continue to stimulate thought or elicit automatic response. Questions that involve frequent recall will help pupils' retention of facts. Such questions are very helpful in subjects like languages and mathematics, for example:
What verb form is appropriate for expressions like a year ago, last month, last night, an hour ago?
How can we find the number of times one fraction is ¢contained in another when the denominators are alike?
When they are unlike?
10. To show relationships, such as cause and effect. Why questions lead pupils to think about situations in relation to their causes. Such questions are important to avoid meaningless repetition of facts without real understanding of their relationships. Figuring out why story characters feel and act as they do, seeing what scientific principles explain a health or safety rule, noticing events that lead to other events in history - these involve perceiving cause-and-effect relationships. Example of some questions of this type are as follows:
What are the ill-effects of smoking'?
How does drought affect the supply of rice?
Why should the government adopt emergency measures to combat water crisis?
Why are barrio folks superstitious?
11. To encourage the application of concepts. Questions can best be used to help pupils see how they can apply the new concepts developed in a lesson to new situations or problems. A lesson takes on personal meaning for pupils when questions that point out the ways new ideas can be used are asked. Such questions can be used to good advantage in certain subjects. In mathematics, for example, after children have known a variety of geometric shapes, they may be taught the wide application of geometric shapes in their environment by using the following questions:
What objects can you find in the classrooms that are round, square, triangular, etc?
Why are the wheels on your toys like a circle?
Why are the doors of your home like a rectangle?
Why are these shapes used in each particular instance?
Why do you prefer a round table to a rectangle?
Characteristics of a Good Question
What makes a good question? The following criteria are characteristics of a good question:
1. A good question is simple and clear. It is so constructed that students can easily understand what is asked, although they may not know the answer to it. The teacher must avoid ambiguity, confusing constructions, double questions, parenthetical remarks, and other verbiage which might cause the pupils to miss the point of the question. For example, "Who called up while I was away?" is a good question, but "Who called?" is a question that cannot be answered until the learner knows the exact time.
2. A good question is definite. It is so stated as to permit only one answer. "Who was our President who stayed in power for 20 years, and why was he called a dictator?" is a poor question, for, it requires two distinctly different lines of thought and should be broken into two separate questions.
3. A good question is challenging and thought-provoking. It must stimulate the student to compare, evaluate, draw conclusions, and appraise results. Unless the purpose of
questioning is drill, a question which can be answered by merely repeating some facts from a book can never be as stimulating as a thought question. Examples of such questions are:
How can you tell if a storm is coming?
Why are local fabrics of lesser quality than those imported?
4. A good question is adapted to the age, abilities, and interests of the students. The general level of ability and interests of students at various grade levels differ. Or, within an age-grade itself, there may be variations due to different home environments among pupils. There is no point in embarrassing or frustrating a pupil by asking him questions which are beyond his capacity. Neither is there much point in asking easy questions which will not stretch the intellect of bright pupils.
Examples of questions adapted to age and abilities of students are:
Elementary: Show that Oriental Mindoro is favorably located.
Secondary: How has the location of Oriental Mindoro made her agriculture-based?
College: How will the location of Oriental Mindoro promote her status or position in the MIMAROPA areas?
5. A good question requires an extended response. Unless the purpose of questioning is drill, a question must not call for a single word or phrase answer. A single word ~or phrase answer tends to become the simple recall type and it could introduce the element of guessing in the classrooms. This is especially true with questions that call for either
"yes" or "no" answers. If teachers will raise questions that call for answers in sentence or paragraph form, the probable results will be extended analysis, synthesis, and organization of response. For example:
In what ways is the Philippines affected by the financial instabilities in the Asian region?
Why has the peso remained a volatile commodity?
If questions framed by teachers comply with the above criteria, teaching will be improved tremendously.
Techniques of Questioning
Questioning requires skill. It often takes many years of classroom experience, professional reading, and self-evaluation for a teacher to be a proficient questioner. All the while the teacher must make a constant and persistent effort to improve his questioning ability and technique. Toward this end, the following techniques are suggested.
1. Questions should be asked in a natural and well· modulated voice. Questions should not be asked hurriedly nor in a way that is likely to create nervous tension in the student and thereby, block the student's thinking.
2. A teacher should ask the question first and then wait for the class to think about it before calling on a student to answer the questions. In this way, everyone has a chance to think before anyone tries to answer it. Students should be given enough time to formulate the answer. Furthermore, this technique will keep all the students alert. If students are appraised before hand as to who is to answer the question, inattention will result.
3. A sufficient number of questions should be asked to stimulate students to activity.
There should not be too many questions to the extent that they require a minimum of thought and the giving of very short or one word answers. Too many questions lead to so much teacher activity and not enough on the part of the students.
4. A teacher should refrain from repeating questions. Attention is challenged when questions are not repeated. However, if for some legitimate reasons, the student did not hear or understand the question, then, of course, one has to repeat the question. This technique also applies to repeating answers. Repeating answers merely wastes time and encourages inattention.
5. Questions should be evenly distributed so that the majority of the pupils can take part in the discussion. Difficult questions should be asked of bright students. A teacher should encourage all students to share in the group thinking at all times.
6. A teacher should avoid resorting to any mechanical system of fielding questions to the class, such as by alphabetical order or row by row. Students catch on to these devices, thus, resulting in student inattention.
7. A teacher should ask questions that are really interesting and thought-provoking.
Leading questions which give away answers, one-word answer questions, and the like may result in boredom on the part of the students.
The manner in which the teacher handles the answers of the students is as important as the asking of questions. The following techniques are suggested for the teacher to observe in handling student responses to his questions:
1. A teacher should make every effort to show an appreciative attitude toward student answers. The students should be made to feel free to do their best. They should be allowed to make mistakes without fear of recrimination, but they should not be abetted in doing careless work. When the student does not answer correctly, the teacher can ask further questions to help the student discover for himself why his original answer was wrong. The teacher should refrain from giving sarcastic comments to wrong answers.
2. A teacher should never allow wrong answers to slip by; otherwise the students will learn wrong facts and concepts. A portion of an answer that is correct should be recognized, but any part of an answer that is incorrect should be corrected. This can be done by the teacher pointing out the error himself or by throwing the question to the class for discussion.
3. Correct answers of students should be followed with encouraging remarks by the teacher. Commendations should be judged by the nature of the response.
4. Clarity in every point expressed by the students should be insisted upon by the teacher. If a student fails to make a point clear, the teacher can ask him to elaborate.
5. Answering in concert should be discouraged. Allowing the whole class to shout the answers aloud will result in classroom chaos. It will also give the lazy or inattentive student the chance to go unnoticed.
6. A teacher should encourage students to answer in a loud and clear voice. A student's response should be heard by the other students in the class. This is especially important when the student's answer will be thrown to the class for the other students to comment on.
7. Students should be encouraged to answer in complete thought units and grammatically correct statements. Every teacher should be concerned with the development of correct expression, whatever subject he teaches. He should insist upon correct forms of expression in order that they may become habitual to the students.
8. A teacher should refrain from marking the students in his record book during the class recitation. Such a procedure is probably the worst way to handle a student's response. This will reduce the recitation to the level of traditional recitation. It will create nervous tension among students and may paralyze critical thinking and hamper spontaneity.
Techniques in Handling Student Questions
The student, not just the teacher, should ask questions. Student questions should be encouraged because they reflect their mental activity. A student will be likely to ask questions only if the teacher will create that type of classroom atmosphere.
How should a teacher handle questioning so that he will be constantly encouraged to ask questions?
The following are techniques suggested in handling student questions:
1. Student questions should be welcomed by a teacher. If students know that their questions will be respected by the teacher, then a teacher can expect more students to ask questions.
2. A teacher should not answer a student question right away. He should first turn over the question to the class for other students to answer and probably discuss.
3. Indiscriminate student questions should not be allowed. Trivial and insignificant questions should be dismissed by the teacher, not automatically but in a brief way such that the student will realize why the question does not merit attention.
3. Indiscriminate student questions should not be allowed. Trivial and insignificant questions should be dismissed by the teacher, not automatically but in a brief way such that the student will realize why the question does not merit attention.