Gateway Engineering Education Coalition Questions & Answers or How to keep an open forum…

Gateway Engineering Education Coalition

Questions & Answers

or

How to keep an open forum…

Gateway Engineering Education Coalition 2

Topics

How to ask questions

How to elicit questions

How to answer questions

How to recover from questions you can’t answer


Asking Questions

Questions should be formed to give students a framework for what is expected in an answer.

Guideline #1:


Asking Questions

“George Bush referred to Ronald Reagan’s economic plan as what economics?”

For example…the question below is posed without a sufficient framework:


Asking Questions

Now…that same question posed within a more complete framework:

“George Bush felt Reagan’s economic plan was more witchcraft than realistic plan. What name did Bush give to Reagan’s plan?”


Asking Questions

Guideline #2:

Give students a chance to answer the questions you pose, especially those you think are “easy”. A good guideline is to wait 10 seconds.


Asking Questions

For example, rather than saying…

“What is the voltage across this component?”

(slight pause)

“We can easily see that it’s five volts.”


Asking Questions

You may want want to try…

“What is the voltage across this component?”

And then wait for a response…


Asking Questions

If no answer is forthcoming, consider asking…

“How could we determine the voltage?”

Or even calling on someone directly


Asking Questions

This may also be the time that you ask the students to work with a neighbor to get the answer and then ask the question again. This allows the students to say “We determined the answer was ……” This takes the burden off the individual student.


Asking Questions

Remember… Don’t be afraid of pauses in your

lecture when you ask questions. When necessary, call on students

but you may want to give them an opportunity to work in pairs or threes to get the response.


Eliciting Questions

When eliciting questions from your class, phrase your requests as though questions are expected.

Guideline #3:


Eliciting Questions

For example, if you say…

“Are there any questions?”

OR

“Does anyone have any questions?”


Eliciting Questions

Then…

You intimate that you aren’t expecting questions and students will be less likely to speak up.


Eliciting Questions

You may want to rephrase your request to make it clear that questions are expected.

For example:

“What questions do you have?”


Answering Questions

Guideline #4:

Helping students arrive at answers on their own (by way of your prompting) helps them learn and remember better and results in a deeper understanding of the answer.


Answering Questions

Rather than simply replying…

“1.5 Volts”

For example, if asked…

“How many volts is this battery?”


Answering Questions

You might want to suggest…

“One way to determine the voltage is to measure it with a voltmeter. In addition, the voltage should be listed on the side of the battery. You can verify the listed voltage against the voltmeter measurement.”


Lack of Answer Recovery

Guideline #5:

Since you can’t know the answer to every question, maintain the pace of the class by considering the question and responding in a timely fashion.


For example, when asked…

Lack of Answer Recovery

“Why are there no letters on the ‘1’ digit on the phone?”

Rather than saying….

“Uhhh… I don’t know. Uhh…. Uhh….”


Lack of Answer RecoveryTry using one of the techniques below:

• “I don’t know, but I’ll find out and get back to you.”

• “Let me think about that a moment.”• Offer the question to the other

students. With good students, you will find that one may have the correct answer which you will recognize.


SummarizingFrame your questions to better prompt students. Wait for the answer. Don’t be afraid of silence. Consider small groups doing Think-Share-Compare if individuals are not responding.Ask for questions in a manner that makes it clear that questions are expected.Help students reason an answer rather than just handing the answer to them.Don’t freeze when you don’t know an answer to a student question; give a definitive answer even if it’s that you don’t know.

Gateway Engineering Education Coalition Questions & Answers or How to keep an open forum…

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