QUESTIONING

The ART and SCIENCE

Learning Outcomes:
At the end of the interactive session, the students will
be able to:
a. identify the principles and guidelines in
questioning, and
b. formulate effective questions.

Expected Output:
Set of Questions addressing basic to higher-order
thinking
Why is questioning an
ART and SCIENCE?
OVERVIEW
•Definition of Questioning
•Purposes for Asking Questions
•Kinds of Questions
•Strategies in Asking Questions
•Characteristics of Effective
Questions
Why do we ask?
•How many times does a teacher ask
questions?
•What typical questions are asked?
•What is a classroom without
questions/ing?
“Effective questioning sessions in
classroom require advance
preparation. ”

https://citl.illinois.edu/citl-101/teaching-learning/resources/teaching-strategies/
questioning-strategies
QUESTIONING
• any sentence which has an interrogative
form or function

• instructional cues or stimuli that convey

to students the content elements to be
learned and directions for what they are
to do and how they are to do it

http://learner3.learner.org/workshops/socialstudies/pdf/session6/6.ClassroomQuestioning.pdf
QUESTIONING
• “is at the heart of recitation”
(Woolfolk, 1994)

• lubricates classroom interaction and

students’ thinking
QUESTIONING
Purposes (Garcia, 2010):

✔ To motivate students
✔ To promote mental activity
✔ To involve students
✔ To obtain feedback
Other more specific purposes:

• to help pupils to extend their thinking from the

concrete and factual to the analytical and
evaluative;
• to lead pupils through a planned sequence which
progressively establishes key understandings;
• to promote reasoning, problem solving, evaluation
and the formulation of hypotheses;
• to promote pupils’ thinking about the way they
have learned.

http://oer.educ.cam.ac.uk/wiki/Teaching_Approaches/Questioning
QUESTIONING
Purposes:

✔Learning
✔Assessment
✔Classroom Management
HOW TO ASK QUESTIONS

Think
Question
Time
Name
Types of Questions
Who is the current president of the Philippines?
CONVERGENT (CLOSED)

What is your opinion on the lifting of ECQ?

DIVERGENT (OPEN)
Types of Questions
Who is the current president of the Philippines?
INTERROGATIVE

State your opinion on the recent midterm

election results.

BEHAVIORAL
http://image.slidesharecdn.com/bloomstaxonomyplanningcognitioninclil-100310131244-phpapp02/95/blooms-taxonomy-plan
ning-cognition-in-clil-2-728.jpg?cb=1268227199
http://morethanenglish.edublogs.org/files/2011/09/Blooms-Lots-and-Hots-1rziprj.jpg
Lower-level questions are most
appropriate for:

• evaluating students' preparation and

comprehension
• diagnosing students' strengths and
weaknesses
• reviewing and/or summarizing content

https://citl.illinois.edu/citl-101/teaching-learning/resources/teaching-strategies/que
stioning-strategies
Higher-level questions are most
appropriate for:

• encouraging students to think more deeply

and critically
• problem solving
• encouraging discussions
• stimulating students to seek information on
their own

https://citl.illinois.edu/citl-101/teaching-learning/resources/teaching-strategies/questioning-stra
tegies
BLOOM’S TAXONOMY OF
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES
Category Sample Question
Recalling What is critical thinking?
Understanding What does it entail?
Applying How can you use critical thinking in daily
life?
Analyzing How can critical thinking enhance one’s
comprehension?
Judging How relevant is critical thinking in solving
problems?
Creating What principle in critical thinking can you
formulate?
The SOLO taxonomy (Structure of
Observed Learning Outcomes)  Biggs
(1982)

https://eductechalogy.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/solo-houses.jpg
The SOLO taxonomy (Structure of
Observed Learning Outcomes) 
Biggs (1982)

https://eductechalogy.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/solo-houses.jpg
STRATEGIES FOR EFFECTIVE USE
OF QUESTIONS (Santrock, 2004)

1. BOTS to HOTS
2. Avoid yes/no and leading questions.
3. Give enough think time.
4. Ask clear, purposeful, brief and sequenced
questions.
STRATEGIES FOR EFFECTIVE USE
OF QUESTIONS (Santrock, 2004)

5. Give appropriate feedback.

6. Encourage students to ask questions.
DEADLY SINS in QUESTIONING
Is it ok to kill for justice?
Yes-No
The correct answer is? Nouns are what?
Fill-in
What is your problem with the current system?
Leading Questions
How do you find the movie we watched?
Ambiguous
Are you in favor of the war on drugs and GMA being
acquitted?
Double-Barreled
DEADLY SINS in QUESTIONING
With concrete examples, how do you prove this
postulate?
Whiplash
Give me an example…I want you to…
Teacher-Centered
Others:
▪ Chorus Response
▪ One-word responses
PLANNING QUESTIONS
• Decide on your goal or purpose for asking
questions.

• Select the content for questioning.

https://citl.illinois.edu/citl-101/teaching-learning/resources/teaching-strategies/que
stioning-strategies
PLANNING QUESTIONS
• Ask questions that require an extended
response or at least a "content" answer.

• Until you are quite skilled at classroom

questioning you should write your main
questions in advance.

https://citl.illinois.edu/citl-101/teaching-learning/resources/teaching-strategies/que
stioning-strategies
PLANNING QUESTIONS
• Phrase your questions so that the task is clear
to students.

• Your questions should not contain the

answers.

https://citl.illinois.edu/citl-101/teaching-learning/resources/teaching-strate
gies/questioning-strategies
Handling Student Responses
• Reinforcement
• Probing
• Adjust/ Refocus

https://citl.illinois.edu/citl-101/teaching-learning/resources/teaching-strate
gies/questioning-strategies
Ways in Dealing with Correct Responses

1.Affirmation
2.Restatement
3.Rephrasing
4.Clarifying

Source: Dr. Elicay’s slides

Ways in Dealing with Incorrect Responses

1.Acknowledging
2.Redirecting
3.Restating
4.Rephrasing
5.Probing
6.Re-teaching/re-explaining
Source: Dr. Elicay’s slides
Strategies for Responding to Student
Questions
• Answer the question yourself.
• Redirect the question to the class.
• Attempt to help the student answer his/her
question.
• Ask the student to stop after class to discuss the
question.
• Refer the student to a resource where s/he can
find the answer.
• Defer the question until a more appropriate time if
the question is not connected to the material
you're covering.
https://citl.illinois.edu/citl-101/teaching-learning/resources/teaching-strategies/q
uestioning-strategies
If you don’t know the answer:
• Never fake an answer.
• Ask whether someone in the class can answer the
question. 
• Either propose a plan for obtaining evidence for
answering the question or ask the students to
suggest how the question could be investigated.
• If possible, suggest a resource where the student
can find information.
• Volunteer to find the answer yourself and report
back to the class
https://citl.illinois.edu/citl-101/teaching-learning/resources/teaching-strategies/questioning-stra
tegies
When students don’t respond:
• Redirect
• Rephrase
• Use “wait time”

https://citl.illinois.edu/citl-101/teaching-learning/resources/teaching-strategies/que
stioning-strategies
Findings of Researches on
Questioning
• Instruction which includes posing questions during
lessons is more effective in producing achievement
gains than instruction carried out without
questioning students.

• Students perform better on test items previously

asked as recitation questions than on items they
have not been exposed to before.

https://educationnorthwest.org/sites/default/files/classroom-questioning.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1Le8PQfZExNSX2nR4vlkBhAXE08R96zKAh
H31XjJTxV1GeMmYcxVXiOv0
Findings of Researches on
Questioning
• Oral questions posed during classroom recitations
are more effective in fostering learning than are
written questions.

• Questions which focus student attention on salient

elements in the lesson result in better
comprehension than questions which do not.

https://educationnorthwest.org/sites/default/files/classroom-questioning.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1Le8PQfZExNSX2nR4vlkBhAXE08R96zKAh
H31XjJTxV1GeMmYcxVXiOv0
Findings of Researches on
Questioning
Placement and Timing of Questions

• Asking questions frequently during class discussions

is positively related to learning facts.

• Increasing the frequency of classroom questions

does not enhance the learning of more complex
material. (Some researchers have found no
relationship; others have found a negative
relationship.)

https://educationnorthwest.org/sites/default/files/classroom-questioning.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1Le8PQfZExNSX2nR4vlkBhAXE08R96zKAh
H31XjJTxV1GeMmYcxVXiOv0
Findings of Researches on
Questioning
Placement and Timing of Questions

• Posing questions before reading and studying

material is effective for students who are older, high
ability, and/or known to be interested in the subject
matter.

• Very young children and poor readers tend to focus

only on material that will help them answer questions
if these are posed before the lesson is presented.

https://educationnorthwest.org/sites/default/files/classroom-questioning.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1Le8PQfZExNSX2nR4vlkBhAXE08R96zKAh
H31XjJTxV1GeMmYcxVXiOv0
Findings of Researches on
Questioning
Placement and Timing of Questions
• For older students, increases in the use of higher cognitive
questions (to 50 percent or more) are positively related to increases
in:
(1) On-task behavior
(2) Length of student responses
(3) The number of relevant contributions volunteered by
students
(4) The number of student-to-student interactions (5) Student
use of complete sentences
(6) Speculative thinking on the part of students
(7) Relevant questions posed by students
https://educationnorthwest.org/sites/default/files/classroom-questioning.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1Le8PQfZExNSX2nR4vlkBhAXE08R96zKAh
H31XjJTxV1GeMmYcxVXiOv0
Findings of Researches on
Questioning
Placement and Timing of Questions
• For older students, increases in the use of higher cognitive
questions (to 50 percent or more) are positively related to increases
in:
(1) On-task behavior
(2) Length of student responses
(3) The number of relevant contributions volunteered by
students
(4) The number of student-to-student interactions (5) Student
use of complete sentences
(6) Speculative thinking on the part of students
(7) Relevant questions posed by students
https://educationnorthwest.org/sites/default/files/classroom-questioning.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1Le8PQfZExNSX2nR4vlkBhAXE08R96zKAh
H31XjJTxV1GeMmYcxVXiOv0
Findings of Researches on
Questioning
Wait Time
• The average wait-time teachers allow after posing a question
is one second or less.
• For lower cognitive questions, a wait-time of three seconds is
most positively related to achievement, with less success
resulting from shorter or longer wait-times.
• There seems to be no wait-time threshold for higher
cognitive questions; students seem to become more and
more engaged and perform better and better the longer the
teacher is willing to wait.
• Increasing wait-time beyond three seconds is positively
related to several student outcomes.
https://educationnorthwest.org/sites/default/files/classroom-questioning.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1Le8PQfZExNSX2nR4vlkBhAXE08R96zKAh
H31XjJTxV1GeMmYcxVXiOv0
Quick Check:
 Activity
Choose a topic that you will presumably discuss
with your students. Following Bloom’s
Taxonomy, formulate questions (at least one)
tapping their the basic to higher order thinking.