Generating Effective Questions

Questioning Strategies
Part 1: Questioning Strategies
Social studies standard: SS.H.2.1: Describe individuals and groups who have shaped a significant historical
change.
Arts standard: State ofIllinois, Visual Art Standard, Cr2.3.1:
Identify and classify uses of everyday objects through drawings, diagrams, sculpture, or other visual
means
Grade level: 1 grade
Learning objective:
Five probing questions that can be used as pre-assessment and formative assessment questions:
1. Do you know who are these two people in the picture?
2. What did Abraham Lincoln do to bring a change in his nation?
3. Do you know anything about George Washington?
4. Why do you think they are being studied in this class?
5. Provide an individual response to what you have learnt so far.

Part 2: Reflection
Asking a variety of questions and using different questioning strategies can be of a great help to the students. Asking questions
to the students help them to get actively involved in the lessons that are taught in the class. Questioning is a sort of evaluation. It helps
the teachers and the professors to know how much have the students been able to grasp the knowledge. Moreover, questioning
increases their motivation and interest. If they answer the questions , they are most likely to develop critical thinking skills and can
know the application of the learning, this also helps them to remain prepared in their studies and nurture their insights.
There are a number of question strategies that a teacher can use , to evaluate the learning capability of his students. The teacher
can ask robust questions to their students which involve the method of initiating, responding and again initiating. This kind of question
strategy can help the teacher to know more about what the student actually knows. It also is an indicative strategy through which the
teacher can know whether the student is ready for refining their understanding (Biggers, 2018). Another kind of question is elicitation
question. Since these kinds of question require application based knowledge, they can help to develop the understanding of the
concept of the students. However, in order to improve the thinking ability of the students and develop their understanding, a teacher
can ask divergent questions to them. This can help the students to gain more knowledge and make their opinions broader. Also on
behalf of the teacher, elaboration questions can act as a great strategy to find out the student’s actual reasoning ability. As per the
discussion of Harvey & Light (2015), clarification questions are also other type of questions which help the student to clarify their

doubts about a certain concept to the teacher. This can be asked both from the students’ end as well as the teacher. These kinds of
question provide an invitation to the students and encourages them to expand their thinking ability and in turn provides them with an
ability to reason out things. However, another kid of question is the inventive question. This kind of question from the teachers help
the students to use their academic knowledge to create things. These type of questions encourage creativity and innovation. It lays
emphasis on using the knowledge that they gain into something that is useful and practical (Pagliaro, 2017).
Thus asking questions to the students and making an assessments of their learning helps them and encourages them to find out
their loopholes. In this manner, their learning needs can also be assessed and they can also find their own place in the fast running
world (Donker et.al., 2014). Moreover, the question answer sessions can not only help the teachers to understand the students’
learning capability but it can also act as an effective classroom session which can encourage them to do the independent learning. It
helps them to promote their thinking ability. According to Walsh & Sattes (2016), it also allows them to be flexible in attaining
knowledge and they can also develop their problem learning skills. Since a classroom has diverse students, they have diverse needs
and diverse learning abilities. Thus making a pre-assessment of the class is important which can only be possible through asking
questions. Moreover, questions can reach out to every student of the class thus involving them into the atmosphere. Through the
question strategy, the teacher can know the standard of the class and it can further help him to develop other effective assessment
strategies that can help the students in the long run.

Reference List:
Biggers, M. (2018). Questioning questions: Elementary teachers’ adaptations of investigation questions across the inquiry
continuum. Research in Science Education, 48(1), 1-28.
Donker, A. S., De Boer, H., Kostons, D., Van Ewijk, C. D., & van der Werf, M. P. (2014). Effectiveness of learning strategy
instruction on academic performance: A meta-analysis. Educational Research Review, 11, 1-26.
Harvey, S., & Light, R. L. (2015). Questioning for learning in game-based approaches to teaching and coaching. Asia-Pacific Journal
of Health, Sport and Physical Education, 6(2), 175-190.
Pagliaro, M. M. (2017). Questioning, Instructional Strategies, and Classroom Management: A Compendium of Criteria for Best
Teaching Practices. Rowman & Littlefield.
Walsh, J. A., & Sattes, B. D. (2016). Quality questioning: Research-based practice to engage every learner. Corwin Press.