Last Observation

Observation: Questioning

What:

            During instruction, there are many dimensions to your teaching that can affect the learning and success of your students. One important dimension to consider is questioning. What types of questions are you asking and how can this questioning be improved?

            There are many questions asked throughout a lesson, so how do you begin to assess the nature of your questioning? I am fortunate enough to have an instructor come observe a lesson that I lead and examine the questioning that I use throughout a lesson. I am particularly interested in the dialogue that will occur after my lesson and the ways that I can improve my current level of questioning.

So what:

            So the lesson went seemingly well, with a dialogue throughout. I was trying to allow students to talk their way to understanding the concept of scientific notation and tried to use questions that would help this understanding. The dialogue after the lesson gave me the opportunity to see the questions I was asking and, in particular, the types of questions that I am using during a lesson. It is easy to fall in to a place where you ask knowledge level questions (eg. “what is…” or “how do I…”). The challenge and learning for students occurs when questioning moves into the unknown and students begin to formulate ideas of what happens “if” or “why” something happens. Without an outside observer, it may be difficult to personally reflect on all of the questions you ask throughout a lesson. Throughout this dialogue it became clear that reflecting on the questions I ask and working with students to hone my questioning skills gives me the opportunity to help students succeed in the future.

Now what:

            So now what can I do with this new understanding of my questioning skills and how to improve? I can use this knowledge to help move from asking simple recall questions. Since each lesson will present new and diverse challenges, it is important to plan ahead and incorporate effective questions into the plan before you begin instructing. This will also give a chance to reflect on these questions before they are asked. Unfortunately it can be much more difficult, or nearly impossible, to change a simple question into an inquiry question mid-lesson, or after a question has already been asked. Therefore this planning ahead is incredibly important!