Asking More Effective Questions

A frequent question asked is how to encourage active discussion, which begins with our instructional design. To assist, I would like to share this paper entitled, "Asking more effective questions" by McComas and Abraham (2004). This paper provides ideas on how we might organize our prompts to create the type of discussions that are meaningful to each of our classes.

The authors share how questions can be high or low order, and convergent or divergent in their design. Wilen (1997) had shown that 5% of teacher directed questions are higher-order divergent. Research further indicates that when instructors focus on why questions are asked, it may lead us to ask the deeper question of how questions are being asked. Techniques for successful questioning cited include:

Phrasing; communicates question so students understand response expectation.
Adaptation; adapts question being asked to fit language and ability level.
Sequencing; asks questions in a patterned order indicating purposeful strategy.
Balance; asks convergent & divergent questions; balances time to align with outcomes.
Participation; uses questions to stimulate range of participation, encouraging responses from volunteering and non-volunteering students, redirects asked questions to others.
Probing; probes initial answers, and encourages to complete, clarify, expand or support.
Wait Time (Think Time); pauses 3-5 seconds to allow time to think before responding.
Student Questions; requires students to generate divergent questions of their own.