QUESTION SKILL

Structure 1 Introduction
2 Objectives
3 Types of Classroom Questions
4 Framing Classroom Questions
5 Asking Questions in the Classroom
5.1 Delivery Component
5.2 Distributing Questions in the Classroom

1 INTRODUCTION
Questions are an aid in the learning process and hence questioning skill is one of the
important teaching skills required to be developed to conduct a classroom session
successfully by a teacher. A teacher’s question could be for Compliance in which the
student is expected to comply, e.g., have you done your home assignments? His/her question
can be Rhetorical in which the student is not supposed to reply, as the teacher answers his/
her own question. The Recall question aims at the answer which the student reproduces
from his memory. These types of questions are generally asked by an autocratic teacher.
Hence, such type of questions are not encouraged by teachers who are democratic, cooperating and friendly towards their students. It is desirable to raise questions which
would involve higher cognitive abilities like comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis
and evaluation. You may have experienced during your teaching career that teachers
generally are not clear about the type of questions which they should ask at various stages
of class lecture. How to frame good questions? What type of questions should be asked
while introducing the concept, explaining the concept, and evaluating the learning outcome
of the students relating to concept? How to deal with the variety of responses from the
students? In this unit, you will be able to understand all the issues pertaining to ‘questioning’
as an important skill of teaching.
9.2 OBJECTIVES
After reading this unit, you would be able to:
l explain the use of the skill of questioning for a variety of purposes;
l discuss the type of classroom questions;
l frame simple questions for classroom use;
l develop questioning skills; and
l deal effectively with the students responses.

3 TYPES OF CLASSROOM QUESTIONS
Skill in asking and directing questions to students is one of the important skills about
which a teacher needs good orientation so that he can acquire this skill effectively. In a
class where the teacher dominates the class mainly by using direct influence uses three
types of questions, such as:
i) Compliance: Here the student is to comply with a question of the commanding and
requesting nature like “would you please turn to page 30 of your text book?”
ii) Rhetorical: The teacher puts the question to the student, but does not pause for an
answer. The teacher himself answers it.
iii) Recall: The teacher asks questions which students answer from their memory.

A teacher should not confine himself only to these types of questions. He should raise
questions which involve higher mental processes like comprehension, application, analysis,
synthesis and evaluation also. Higher order cognitive questioning can be classified into
three broad categories: namely, (i) Reasoning questions; (ii) or Creating questions;
(iii) Valuing questions, so as to help the students to: a) Reason b) Create, and c) Value.

4 FRAMING CLASSROOM QUESTIONS
Given below are a few guidelines for framing classroom questions. You need to go through
them very carefully.
l In classroom teaching, very short answer questions (one sentence answer) or short
answer (two three sentences) should be asked. These questions give the child an
opportunity to express his ideas.
l Whenever multiple choice questions have to be asked, these should be written on the
blackboard or on the other roller board.
l Essay type questions should be avoided during the classroom transaction.
l Questions which require ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ response should be rarely asked. These
questions have high scope for guessing. The correct responses on the part of a student
does not manifest as to whether the response was really known to him/her or it was
a sheer guess. Secondly, such questions hardly stimulate thinking.
l Teachers should ask questions which are related to the content being taught in the
class. The questions not related to the content hardly serve any purpose. Rather, they
break the continuity of the lesson and distract the student’s attention and impede the
process of learning the content.
l As an ilIustration, given below is a teaching episode. In this episode, teacher wants
to teach what is a “noun”. Identify the sentences which are irrelevant:
Teacher : What is a noun?
Student : Noun is the name of a person, place or a thing.
Teacher : Writes on the blackboard. Allahabad is a sacred city; and puts the
question, ‘Which is the noun in this sentence?’
Student : Allahabad.
Teacher : Do you know what is a sacred place?
Student : No
You know that the instructional objective of the teacher in the said teaching episode was to
teach the ‘noun’. She asks them to recall its definition and recognize the noun in a given
sentence. The third question “Do you know what is sacred place?”, is not a relevant
question. Therefore, questions, which drift from the main theme of the lesson, need to be
avoided.
If the questions structured by a teacher is not grammatically correct, it creates confusion
in the minds of students. They take more time to understand and respond. In some cases,
they may even fail to respond. Moreover, the teacher’s fluency of questioning is reduced.
Grammatically incorrect questions also fail to communicate their intent.
Some errors which have been observed while framing classroom questions include: .
a) Not using appropriate interrogatives at the beginning of questions;
b) Use of inappropriate tense; and
c) Use of double negatives in a single question.

5 ASKING QUESTIONS IN THE CLASSROOM
Structuring of questions is a conscious process going on in the mind of the teachers
continuously in the classroom: He structures various questions in relation to the instructional
objectives of the lesson and the learning task at hand. Ultimately these questions are
communicated to the students to elicit answers from them. This process of communicating
the question verbally to the students in the classroom is termed as the ‘delivery process’.
Once a teacher has put a question to the class, the next step in the sequence refers to
identifying a student who would respond to that question. This stage is known as
‘distribution stage’ in classroom questioning behaviour sequence. Delivery and distribution
are thus important aspects of classroom questioning behaviour.
5.1 Delivery Component
A teacher’s questioning in the classroom is primarily a verbal communication to stimulate
students’ thinking. In a normal classroom, a teacher talks to approximately 30-35 students.
The effectiveness of his talk in general and questioning in particular depends on the delivery
process which includes the speed with which a question is put, the voice its pitch and
tone, and pause to allow the students to think. Let us now discuss these components
relating to the delivery process of classroom questions.
Speed: The speed of the delivery of a question refers to the time taken in speaking it out
to the students. Our observations have shown that usually teachers take a few seconds to
deliver a question. Moreover, it is also found that in most of the cases the speed remains
uninfluenced with the function and level of a particular question. Indeed, high speed in
asking questions is sometimes wrongly estimated by teachers. Considering the level of
aural and oral development of students, it could be rightly justified that the speed of
delivering questions in the classroom should always be in accordance with the students’
comprehensibility. Besides, the speed of delivering a question should also be adjusted
according to the level of thinking required to answer it. The lower order questions requiring
memory functions of students could be asked relatively faster in comparison to higher
order questions, which requires complex mental operations. Putting higher-order questions
at a quicker pace is likely to go incomprehended in the classroom. Consequently, the
students may not be able to respond to them. Thus the level and function of classroom
question determine the speed of their delivery. Questions intended for drill and practice
could be asked relatively faster than questions to perform other functions. In conclusion,
it may be emphasized here that speed of the delivery of a question should be in accordance
to the students’ cognitive development, the level of thinking required to answer it, and the
function it is required to perform.
Voice: In the perspective of questioning in the classroom, voice refers to its audibility and
modulation is such a manner that each and every student in the classroom listens accurately
what the question is, what it requires and through what level of thinking it could be
answered. The question should be spoken in such a voice that all students including those sitting in last rows of the classroom can hear it. Only then we can expect to harness the
students’ capacities to develop the lesson and to impart new knowledge. Besides the
audibility of the question, its modulation orientation is also important. Intonation of specific
words or pharases of a question emphasise the specific objects that are to answer a question.
Improperly modulated or intonated questions remain unsuccessful in creating an appropriate
learning mental set in the students. Such questions tend to be perceived by the students as
statements put questions, which results in a failure to secure the desired attention from the
students. The above discussion leads to the conclusion that teachers should pay adequate
attention to their voice, its pitch, modulation and intonation.
Pause: It refers to the small periods of silence observed by the teacher just after delivering
a question. These periods of silence are very important in determining the kind and level
of thinking stimulated in students. They provide the time to the students to think and
formulate an appropriate answer. A long pause communicates the teacher’s intent to elicit
well considered relatively lengthier answer from the students. On the contrary, a short
pause indicates the teacher’s expectations of immediate answers from the memory of the
students. It has been found that usually teachers in the classroom neglect the importance
of a pause to stimulate thinking in students and observe either a too short or too lengthy
pause, for a question irrespective of its level and function. It should be kept in mind that
periods of pause should be in accordance with the level and function of the question.
Thus, a shorter pause for lower order questions is suitable. While relatively lengthier
pause is appropriate for higher order questions requiring higher mental thinking from
students. Drill questions require shorter periods of pause than questions for other functions.
It is very common for teachers to ask questions in the classroom: These questions serve
many purposes. One of them is to test students’ knowledge at different stages of teaching.
Questions are also put to arouse their curiosity and to prepare them for the learning task.
In classroom teaching questions are used by the teacher to find out whether students have
understood what was taught.
But its effectiveness depends on the competence of the teacher who uses it. One must
acquire this skill for its effective use in his/her classroom instruction.
Questions are also classified broadly into two categories. Questions in the first category
are those which ‘test’ knowledge. The latter may be labelled as ‘divergent’ questions. The
questions in the former category are labelled as ‘convergent’ questions as they have a
particular correct response. The following questions fall in the first category.

What would happen if India is not able to achieve “Education for All by 2000 A.D.”?
As mentioned earlier, there can be many different responses to either of the above questions,
which cannot be classified as either right or wrong. On the other hand, questions in this
category stimulate thinking on the part of students and generate new ideas.
In the classroom, questions belonging to the first category are mostly asked. Questions
falling under the second category are rarely asked. As a result we do not provide adequate
experiences to our students to stimulate their thinking.

When was Mahatma Gandhi born?

When was Indian Constitution formed?

When did India achieve Independence?
You know that there is one correct response for each of these questions. Students’ responses
to these questions will either be correct or incorrect.
The question in the second category does not have any one correct response. A number of
responses to such a question can be correct. For instance, there is no single correct response
to any of the following questions.

What would happen if man starts living on the moon?

5.2 Distributing Questions in the Classroom
The following guidelines as suggested by Kulkarni (1986), may be followed by teachers
while distributing questions in the classroom.

  1. Clear and Coherent
    The questions should be clear and coherent. The clarity of the question is less when the
    teacher does not plan to ask that question. He becomes hesitant and indecisive. Sometimes
    the vague and poor knowledge of the teacher about the subject leads to questions which
    are not clear.
  2. Frequency and Sequencing of Questions
    The number of questions asked by the teacher in one classroom session should be moderate.
    Too many questions will transform a teaching session into a quiz session. If the number of
    questions asked by the teacher is small, it will make students passive and inattentive.
  3. Pausing and Non-verbal Cues in Questions
    Some teachers ask a question and without waiting for an answer the students themselves
    give the answer, or proceed further. This makes the situation a rhetorical one and the
    students also feel it is an activity of the teacher in which they need not participate. Hence,
    it is desirable to provide an appropriate pause for students to think and formulate their
    answers. The teacher should also resphrase the question if it is not understood by the
    students. Some verbal or non-verbal clues should also be provided by the teacher to help
    the students to arrive at the correct answers. This sustains the interest of students.
  4. Directing Questions
    The teacher while asking questions should provide the opportunity to answer to the majority
    of the students. The distribution of questions should be uniform. and random. If a teacher
    asks questions only to those who are eager, he may end up with a situation where he is
    talking to only a few students in the classroom, completely ignoring the slow learners. If
    he deliberately puts questions to those who cannot answer, the teacher may end up in a.
    situation where most students get a feeling that the teacher trying to expose their ignorance
    in the classroom. Hence, questions should be asked to facilitate the learning process, not
    as punishing/threatening tool.
    The distribution of classroom questions can be considered along three lines, namely
    distribution in terms of classroom space, distribution among volunteers and non-volunteers,
    and redirecting the same question to other students for increasing student participation.
    Proper distribution of questions helps in securing and maintaining students’ attention,
    enlists their active involvement in the teaching-learning process and also in sustaining
    their interest in the learning task.
    Distribution in space: It has been observed that the teachers tend to ask questions mostly
    from the students seated in front rows. Besides this, there is also a variation in the frequency
    of questions put to the students on the left or right side of the classroom. Thus, in most of
    the classroom the back benchers are neglected. These students slowly become passive
    towards the teacher’s questions. They fail to answer, even if an occasional opportunity is
    provided to them: The lack of active participation in classroom teaching-learning creates
    a feeling of indifference among students in the classroom transactions. This leads them to
    poor attention and consequent low achievement. An effective approach in this regard may
    be to distribute questions fairly in different parts of the classroom. This will help the
    teacher to secure active cooperation of all the students to develop his lesson and make it
    interesting.
    Distribution among volunteers and non-volunteers (direct): Whenever a question is
    asked by a teacher, some students raise their hands, while others do not. Besides, some students show, verbally or non-verbally, their eagerness to answer the question and others show their reluctance towards it. The former category of students is termed as volunteer and latter as non-volunteer. The teacher should also give special consideration to non-volunteer students while asking the question. Non-volunteers, as a group, lack initiative, remain aloof and disinterested in the classroom transactions. They may rather create discipline problems. All this leads to poor achievement. In order to involve the whole class in the teaching-learning process and making teaching effective, the teacher should put questions to volunteers as well as non-volunteer. Distribution among volunteers and non-volunteers (redirection): There is one more procedure available to distribute questions in the classroom. Suppose, you have asked a question in the classroom and after an appropriate pause, you designate student “A’ to respond. The movement you designate student “A” other students class become passive listeners. To check this tendency among the students and sometimes to improve or judge the answer given by “A”, you may repeat your question to some more students. This is what we call ‘redirection’ and is a useful strategy to secure and maintain student’s attention in the classroom. Redirection of the questions among the space and among volunteers and non-volunteers is also an effective way to secure student’s active participation in the teachingl-learning activities.
  5. Prompting and Probing Questions
    To facilitate the learning process, the teacher should provide prompts,cues etc. to students
    so that they come up with right answers. The prompts can be thematic, sequential or
    pictorial. The questions asked by the teacher will help the students to remember, think,
    create, compare or evaluate if the teacher asks a series of supplementary questions. This
    skill of asking questions is ‘probing’. It is a process which helps a student to ‘deliver’.

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