Question Levels and Questioning Skills

Dr. R. Ouyang
rouyang@kennesaw.edu

To be employed most effectively, questions must be adjusted to fit the needs of the students
(Duffy, Roehler, Mrloth, & Vavrus, 1985).

Question levels: Low level and high level questions

Low-level questions tap students' knowledge. Knowledge level requires students to recall
information that has been memorized and stored. Asking students to recall information such
as terms, facts, names, and events, you have formed a low-level question.

1. What are the three most common tools in a metal shop?

2. How much is 5 + 5?
3. Who is President of the United States?
4. Where is Austria located?

High-level questions require students to expand their thinking. In cognitive domain, the
questions related to comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation are high-
level questions.

Typically,
-- questions beginning with phrases such as "Why... How... "
-- questions beginning with phrases such as "Tell me about..."
-- questions to promote student involvement, description questions and comparison
questions

1. Based on our discussion, what was the major cause of the stock market crash of 1929?
2. Combining the formulas for a triangle and a rectangle, what would be the formula for
finding the area of a parallelogram?
3. Why do you suppose we entered World War I?
4. What would be a good title of this story?
5. Can you give me an example of the use of this word in a sentence?
6. Why is it important that we continue to explore space?
7. Who do you consider the greatest scientist that ever lived?

Both low- and high-level questions are important. The primary issue is not to be rigid in
defining question levels but rather to ask questions at a level appropriate for the learner and
learning activities. Questions can be convergent and divergent. Convergent questions are
those that require one correct answer. Such as 1.) What part of speech modifies a noun or
pronoun? 2.) What is the most populous country in the world? Divergent questions are those
that allow many appropriate different answers. Such as 1.) Give me one of the most
significant dates in the world history? 2.) How are the beans alike?

Questioning techniques

Redirection, prompting, probing, and wait-time are all techniques that can be used to
promote students' involvement, enhance success, and promote a positive and emotionally
safe learning environment.
Redirection

Redirecting is a technique in which you ask several students to respond to a question, in

light of the previous responses. It is an effective way of building broader participation in
classroom discussions. Since there must be several correct responses, the question must be
divergent, productive, or evaluative.
"We have now studied the contributions of several great men and women of science. Which
scientist do you think make the great contribution?" [Pause. Several hands go up]

"Carol?"
"Albert Einstein."
"Mary?"
"Marie Curie."
"Mike, your opinion?"
"Thomas Edison."

Which equation do you think the Non-examples of Standard Notation? Why do you say so?

Prompting

What would you do when a student fails to answer your question or gives an incorrect
response? Prompting is a technique to move on to another student in order to maintain
interest. Prompting questions use hints and clues to aid students in answering questions or
to assist them in correcting an initial original question with clues or hints included.

"What is 5 plus 7, Pat?"

"I don't know."
"Well, let's see if we can figure it out. What is 5 plus 5?"
[Pause.] "10."
"Right. Now, we want 5 plus 7. How many more than 5 is 7?"
[pause.] "2."
"Good. So, if 5 plus 5 is 10 and we add 2 more, what is 5 plus 7?"
[Pause.] "12."
"Very good, Pat."

Probing

Redirection involves more students in discussion, prompting helps students hints and clues
to deal with incorrect responses. Another situation arises when student's reply is correct but
insufficient because it lacks depth. In such a case, teacher should ask student to supply
additional information in order to have better, more inclusive answers. Probing questions
force the student to think more thoroughly about the initial response.

"Do you think trees are important to the land?" (Pause) "Carmelita?"
"Yes."
"Why, Carmelita?"
"Because they help hold things together."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Well, the roots and all go down into the ground and help the ground stay in one place."
"That's very good, Carmelita, and as we learned yesterday, when the earth begins to move
away to different place, it's called erosion."

“Do you think a graph can be drawn from the function? (X + 3)2? (Pause) “Ali?”
“Can”
“How, Ali?”
.............................................................

Wait-time

Wait-time is another conceptually simple but powerful questioning technique. Students need
time to think. Mary Budd Rowe (1974) has shown that most of teachers on the average wait
about 1 second for students to answer questions. She found that when teachers waited
approximately 3 seconds or longer for the answer to a question, the quality of students'
responses improved: 1) the length of student responses increases, 2) failure to respond
decreases, 3) questions from students increases, 4) unsolicited responses increases, 5)
confidence of student increases, 6) Speculative thinking increases.

Equitable Distribution

Equitable distribution describes a questioning pattern in which all students in the class are
called on as equally as possible. Equitable distribution runs counter to two common teaching
patterns. First, in typical classrooms, about two third of all teacher questions are undirected,
meaning that students who volunteer are allowed to answer, and those who are not allowed
to remain passive. This practice detracts from achievement because the involvement of
students who don’t volunteer decreases (Kauchak, D.P., Eggen, P.D. 2003). As it’s stated in
the same book taken from Gage and Berliner (1988), in a review of the literature in this
area, experts concluded that teachers should call on volunteers less than ten to fifteen
percent of the time. The researchers suggested that 85 percent to 90 percent of all teacher
questions should be directed to students who don’t volunteer! Equitable distribution
communicates that the teacher expects all students to attend and each student will be able
to and assisted to answer. If teachers practice equitable distribution as a day-to-day pattern,
student involvement and learning can dramatically increase. When the students know that
they are certain to be called, the level of attention becomes high. In cases where students
“drift off”, the teacher intervenes immediately. An example of this kind of interaction –only a
segment –can be seen below. (José is the teacher.)

José: How do we know it (the bottle) was heated?... Ginny?

Ginny: I, er, I didn’t hear the question (answering sheepishly).
José: What did I do with this bottle, Ginny (holding up the bottle with the red
balloon)?
Ginny: You put it in the coffee pot.
José: Yes I did, Ginny. Good. And how do we know the coffee pot was hot? …
Rosemary?

The simple sequence served two important functions. First it got Ginny back into the
lesson, and second, it contributed to a positive classroom climate. Ginny knew that José has
caught her not paying attention, but he didn’t criticize her. Instead, he simply rephrased his
original question and went on. This sequence communicated that José was on her side,
wanting her to contribute and learn. This helped to create a positive climate (Kauchak, D.P.,
Eggen, P.D. 2003).
Like above example, Grossier (1964) has noted at least three situations where it
makes sense to call on the student before asking a question (Good,T.L., Brophy, J.R. 1984):
1. The teacher wants to draw an inattentive student back into the lesson.
2. The teacher wants to ask a follow-up question of a student who has just responded.
3. The teacher is calling on a shy student who may be “shocked” if called on without
warning.

Questioning Guidelines

1. Ask clear questions. Ask something definite in simple, clear language that students can
understand. Avoid ambiguous, confusing constructions and excess verbiage (excessively
lengthy).
2. Ask your question before designating a respondent. Ask the question, wait for the class to
think about it, and then ask someone for an answer. As usual, there are exceptions to this
rule. When you call on an inattentive student, it is often better to call the name first so that
the question will be heard. Similarly, you should call the name first when you address slow or
shy students, so that they can prepare themselves.
3. Ask questions that match your lesson objectives. When facts are wanted, ask factual and
empirical questions (knowledge level). When you want to stimulate student thinking, ask
productive and evaluative questions (different high level questions).
4. Distribute questions about the class fairly. Avoid directing all questions to a few bright
students. However, also avoid developing a mechanical system for asking questions.
Students soon catch on such systems as going by alphabetical order or row by row, and they
will pay attention only when they know it is their turn.
5. Ask questions suited to all ability levels in the class. Some questions should be easy and
some should be difficult, so that all students will have a chance to respond to some
questions correctly.
6. Ask only one question at a time. Asking two or three questions at once often confuses
students. Multiple questions permit no time to think and, since several questions were asked,
students are not sure which question to answer first.
7. Avoid asking questions too soon. It is usually much more effective to establish a
knowledge base before initiating a questioning sequence. This is especially true when higher-
level questions are to be asked.
8. Pause for at least 3 seconds following each question. A 3-second pause gives students
time to think and to formulate their answers.

Reference:
Jacobsen, D., Eggen, P. & Kauchak, D. (1993). Methods for Teaching: A Skills Approach
(4th ed.). New York: Merrill.