QUESTION AS A TOOL OF

ASSESSMENT CLASSIFICATION &

TYPES WITH INSTRUCTIONS
Presented by ,

Neethu vijayan

QUESTION
Aquestionisalinguisticexpressionusedtomakea

requestforinformation,ortherequestmadeusing
suchanexpression.Theinformationrequestedmaybe
providedintheformofaanswer.
Questionshavedevelopedarangeofusesthatgo
beyondthesimpleelicitingofinformationfrom
anotherparty.

The principal use of questions is to elicit

information from the person being addressed,

by indicating, more or less precisely, the
information which the speaker (or writer)
desires. However questions can also be used
for a number of other purposes. Questions
may be asked for the purpose of testing
someone's knowledge, as in aquizor
examination. Raising a question may guide
the questioner along an avenue ofresearch

Questioning is an important means of teaching .

Unfortunately it is often used badly, but when well
used ,it provides a ladder up which the pupil climbs
towardsfulleranddeeperunderstanding.

Questions serve two purpose:

1. Totestwhathasbeenlearned.Forthispurpose,the
fourinterrogatives,who,what,where,&whenare
generallyused
2. To stimulate thought & lead to a deeper
understanding.Hereinterrogativeshow&whyare
used.

What types of questions are you asking students?

The art of asking questions is an ancient part of
good teaching and one of the basic skills all teachers
should be able to master. Socrates believed that
knowledge and awareness were an intrinsic part of
each learner.
1. FACTUAL
2. CONVERGENT
3. DIVERGENT
4. EVALUATIVE
5. COMBINATIONS

Types of
questions

CAN
BE EITHER
OPEN
CLOSED
BUT
DEALSWITH
WITH
CAN ALSO
BE EITHER
OPEN
OR OR
CLOSED
BUT
DEALS

QUESTION
LOWER ORDER

MEMMORY
RECALL
DEFINE
DESCRIBE
IDENTIFY
LIST
NAME
RECALL
REPORT
RETELL
STATE

COMPREHENSIO
N
CLASSIFY
COMPARE
CONCLUDE
CONTRAST
ESTIMATE
INFER
PREDICT
SUMMARISE
APLLICATION
APPLY
MAKEUSEOF
TRANSFERTOIT

ANALYSIS
IDENTIFY
PERCEIVE THE
PATTERN OF
RELATE

SYNTHESIS

CHANGE,COMBINE
CREATE,DESIGN
GENERALISE,INTEGRATE
PLAN,PRODUCE,PURPOS
E
REORGANISE,SPECULAT
EVALUATION
E
ASSESSS DEFEND JUDGE

Variouscategorizationsofquestionshavebeenproposed.With
regardtoresearchprojects,onesystemdistinguishes:
QUESTIONS
DESCRIPTIVE

Teachersskillinquestioningliesnotonlyinhisbeingabletousetherightkind
Teachersskillinquestioningliesnotonlyinhisbeingableto
of questioning
for specific task but in his being able to probe or use further
usetherightkindofquestioningforspecifictaskbutinhis
questionstogetfromhispeoplewhatheisafter.
beingabletoprobeorusefurtherquestionstogetfromhis
peoplewhatheisafter.
Italsoliesinhisbeingabletoredirectquestionstoother
It
also lies in his being able to redirect questions to other pupils to widen
pupilstowidenparticipationwithoutmakingthepupilswhose
participation
without making the pupils whose answers have been inadequate
answershavebeeninadequatefeeltheircontributionisoflittle
feeltheircontributionisoflittlevalue.
value.
Itisahighlycomplexskillrequiringanunderstandingof
peopleandgrouppsychologyaswellasathoroughknowledge
It is a highly complex skill requiring an understanding of people and group
ofwhatisbeingtaught
psychologyaswellasathoroughknowledgeofwhatisbeingtaught

Inexperiencedteachersfrequentlymakebaduseofquestioningandfallinto
habitsthattendtopersistunlesstheirattentionisdrawntothem.Herearethe
mostcommonweaknessesinquestioning:
1. Badly formed questions

a. Vague or very general questions

To this kind of questions there may be no
answer at all or there may be so many possible
answers.
Eg:: What do we find on the oceans ?
b. Rhetorical questions
These are statements with an interrogative
phrase like Isnt it ? or Dont you think so ?
They serves no purpose because they
demand neither knowledge nor thought from

c. Post-script questions
These occur when a teacher has been happily
teaching without any
questions and suddenly
realises he ought to be asking questions. Their
only test is of whether or not the children have
been paying attention.
Eg:: Addis Ababa is the capital of Ethiopia. What is
the capital of Ethiopia ?
d. Fill -in-the blank questions
In their written form, these provide an
acceptable kind of test of knowledge because they
test learning . But in their oral form they are
usually a cover for the impatient or lazy teacher
who will not take the trouble to formulate his
questions carefully .
Eg::
When he looked at his hands he found they

2. repeated questions
Questions repeated in different ways may
confuse children rather than clarify what you are
after.
3. Multiple questions
4. unlinked questions
Unlinked Questions are usually the result of
inexperience . They form an illogical assortment,
consisting of easy and difficult questions which
lead nowhere in particular.

5. Limited questions
Some teacher look upon questioning as a
help only for times of difficulty, as when they
run dry of information and ask Has anyone
any question ? They fail to see questioning as
a technique of teaching and so their questions
are few and far between.

IMPROVING QUESTIONING SKILLS

factors that encourage pupils to respond
Pausing
Dealingdiplomaticallywithwronganswers
Namingindividuals
FACTORS THAT IMPROVE POOR RESPONSES
Prompting
Askingforclarification
Refocusingthequestion
factors that increase pupil participation
Redirection
Higherorderquestions
Requestingfulleranswers

factors that inhibit discussion

Repeatingownquestions
Answeringownquestions
Repeatingpupilsanswers