Effective Questioning

Questioning is one of the most integral characteristics of effective teaching and learning, quite simply as it:

• drives learning
• creates a language rich environment
• reviews learning
• encourages engagement and motivation
• develops critical thinking

Rosenshine writes in his Principles of Instruction – ‘Ask a large number of questions and check the responses of all students. Questions help students practice new information and connect new material to their prior learning.’

To improve your questioning strategy and technique, take a look at some of the great blog posts below.

• The importance of questioning – Martyn Simmonds
• What does research evidence tell us about effective questioning? – Andy Tharby
• Why we shouldn’t allow students to ask questions whenever they want – Ben Newmark
• Questioning for confirmation and then challenge – Sarah Donarski
• Can we teach curiosity? – Sarah Donarski
• Conducting classroom talk – Alex Quigley
• Inclusive questioning – Alex Quigley
• What is the cold call strategy? – Doug Lemov
• How cold calling has developed my teaching – Mike Friedberg

Or alternatively, please take out one of the books from the CPD learning library in the staff room and focus on the chapters below:

• What does this look like in the classroom –Chapter 7 – Classroom Talk and Questioning – Hendrick and Macpherson
• Making every lesson count – Chapter 6 – Questioning – Allison and Tharby
• Teach Like a Champion 2.0 – Chapter 7 – Building ratio through questioning – Doug Lemov
• Slow Teaching –Chapter 6 – Questioning: Rediscovering the potential – Jamie Thom
• The Learning Rainforest–Pages 195-208 – Tom Sherrington
• The Confident Teacher – Chapter 12 – Confident questioning and feedback – Alex Quigley
• Teach Like a Champion 2.0 –Techniques 11 and 22 No Opt Out and Cold Call –Doug Lemov

Also worth checking out these short videos on questioning:

• Questioning – Tom Sherrington
• Responsive Questioning – Tom Sherrington
• Cold Calling – Doug Lemov
• Cold Calling Example
• Cold Calling Examples
• No Opt Out – Denarius Frazier Example
• No Opt Out – Aidan Thomas Example
• No Opt Out Example
• Breaking Questions Down