Questioning: high-quality learning

A high-quality learning environment

Cultivating curiosity, critical thinking, and deeper learning through questioning unlocks a new understanding of knowledge through exploration and discovery.
'Why do you think'... could be a critical starter that sparks curiosity, putting the learner in charge. Questioning is an art - depth of learning can be guided by Bloom and Socrates - ideas can be used to stimulate critical thinking, drive curiosity, and inspire transformative learning experiences.

Why is questioning necessary, and how does this impact students' learning?

When asked, they actively engage with the learner, seeking clarity, personal insights, and connections. Assumptions can be challenged, information can be analyzed, and as a result, the learner develops a deeper understanding of the concepts.

Most important is slowly posing thought-provoking questions when skillfully asked to gain immediate active participation in stimulating students' critical thinking abilities.

Strategies

Classroom dynamics is what brings the questioning to life. Facilitating a discussion can look different in any classroom.
As a prompt, the teacher interjects when the conversation wanes, facilitates motivation, develops persistence, and cultivates curiosity.

Turn-and-talk or Think-Pair-Share strategies can energize your teaching practice and produce powerful results - in many forms.

So, for example, if you start with an idea and provide blank note cards to your students, they can write their initial thoughts on the card individually. You can then create discussion pair groups, asking them to explore similarities and differences or any other challenge similar to the learning objective.

You could also ask students to draw something they learned from their discussion group on the blank side of their note card to share with you, their group mates, or the class.

If wanting to integrate kinesthetic engagement into classroom discussion, the images can be posted in corners of the room, directing students to stand next to the most appealing image.

You could pair students by image and ask them to research their chosen picture independently.

To encourage oracy and literacy, you could assign students to groups and provide a role: speaker, scribe, and timekeeper.

To access visible learners, you could use a short video or text and ask students to write their thoughts on color-coded sticky notes: green might mean "interesting," red "challenging." and come up with one question.

Then, create small groups and direct participants to identify similarities and differences between their notes, etc...

A plethora of sequences can be used to develop discussions in the classroom to empower student thinking - taking risks in creating space for your students to participate in the meaning-making process and make it fun actively.

Throughout, the challenge can be added to your questioning level.

​Bloom's Taxonomy

Bloom can guide questioning.

At the lower level questioning requiring recall or memory could start with. These only sometimes result in deeper thinking as you just request knowledge recall.

• What are...
• What reasons...
• Can you identify...
• List some common causes of...

At the next level, you are beginning to test understanding:

• Can you explain...
• How would you describe...
• Summarise the main consequences...

To apply knowledge and concepts in new situations, questions can be:

• How can we apply the...
• How can we demonstrate how...
• What strategies can we use...

Initiating analysis is a higher-level skill and can include questions such as:

• Analyze the cause of...
• Compare the impact of and contrast...
• Examine the factors that contribute to ...

Seeking evaluation requires deeper level thinking:

• Evaluate the effectiveness of ...
• Judge the importance of ...

Initiating creativity is where the learner is asked to think even more profoundly, for example:

• Design a more efficient...
• Develop a plan...
• Invent a new technology that can...

Skilled questioning can use a mixture of this stem, stimulating critical thinking and encouraging learners to explore deeply and creatively.

Most important is the empowerment to make meaningful connections between their learning and the real world, real-life.

Socratic Methods

Socrates introduced cooperative argumentative dialogue between individuals that encourages critical thinking using probing questions to stimulate critical examination of ideas and promote deeper insights.

So, as a teacher, you can probe by asking for clarification:

• Could you elaborate on what you mean by...
• Can you elaborate further on...

Or probe further:

• What assumptions are you making...
• How might their assumptions impact...

Or challenge further:

• What evidence supports your claim...
• How reliable is your data, and what sources can you verify the...

Or explore further:

• What might be some different approaches be...
• Any different opinions...
• Why do you think...

With high-quality learning strategies and appropriate questioning in every classroom, you can find communication, adaptability, empathy, knowledge, passion, creativity, patience, listening, collaboration, and critical thinking...


Dr. Tassos Anastasiades