W6 Questioning TechniquesWk6.ppt

7/27/2019 W6 Questioning TechniquesWk6.ppt

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DEVELOPING

CLASSROOM SKILLS

(WEEK 6)


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QUESTIONING TECHNIQUES1. Plan key questions to provide

structure and direction to the lesson.Spontaneous questions that emergeare fine, but the overall direction of

the discussion has been largelyplanned


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Example: a "predicting discussion" (Hyman,1980)

What are the essential features and conditionsof this situation?

Given this situation, what do you think willhappen as a result of it?

What facts and generalization support yourprediction?

What other things might happen as a result ofthis situation?

If the predicted situation occurs, what willhappen next?

Based on the information and predictionsbefore us, what are the probable consequencesyou now see?

What will lead us from the current situation to

the one you predicted?


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2.Phrase the questions clearly andspecifically. Avoid vague and ambiguousquestions.

3.Adapt questions to the level of thestudents' abilities

4.Ask questions logically and sequentially

5.Ask questions at various levels

6.Follow up on students' responses


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7. Elicit longer, more meaningful and morefrequent responses from students afteran initial response by -

Maintaining a deliberate silence

Making a declarative statement

Making a reflective statement giving asense of what the students said

Declaring perplexity over the response

Inviting elaborationEncouraging other students to comment


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8. Give students time to think after they are questioned(Wait Time)The three most productive types of questions arevariants of divergent thinking questions (Andrews,1980):

The Playground Question Structured by instructor's disignating a carefully chosen

aspect of the material (the "playground") "Let's see if we can make any generalizations about the play

as a whole from the nature of the opening lines."

The Brainstorm Question Structure is thematic Generate as many ideas on a single topic as possible within

a short period of time "What kinds of things is Hamlet questioning - not just in his

soliloquy, but throughout the play?" The Focal Question

Focuses on a well articulated issue Choose among a limited number of positions or viewpoints

and support your views

"Is Ivan Illych a victim of his society or did he create hisproblems by his own choices?"


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LEVELS AND TYPES OF

QUESTIONS Bloom's Taxonomy

Questioning should be used purposefully toachieve well-defined goals. An instructor shouldask questions which will require students to usethe thinking skills which he is trying to develop.A system exists for organizing those thinkingskills. Bloom's Taxonomy (Benjamin Bloom(ed)., Taxonomy of Educational Objectives:

Handbook I Cognitive Domain (New York:David McKay Co., 1956)) is a hierarchicalsystem of ordering thinking skills from lower tohigher, with the higher levels including all of

the cognitive skills from the lower levels.


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Below are the levels of the taxonomy, abrief explanation of each one, andexamples of questions which require

students to use thinking skills at eachlevel.

1.Knowledge - Remembering previously

learned material, e.g., definitions,concepts, principles, formulas.

What is the definition of "verb"?

What is the law of supply and demand?What are the stages of cell division?


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2. Comprehension - Understanding the meaning ofremembered material, usually demonstrated byexplaining in one's own words or citing examples.

What are some words which are commonly used asadjectives?

What does the graph on page 19 mean?

Explain the process of digestion.

3. Application - Using information in a new context to

solve a problem, to answer a question, or to performanother task. The information used may be rules,principles, formulas, theories, concepts, or procedures.

Using the procedures we have discussed, what would

you include in a summary of Bacon's essay? How does the law of supply and demand explain the

current increase in fruit and vegetable prices?

Based on your knowledge, what statistical procedure isappropriate for this problem?

4 A l i B ki i f i l i i


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4. Analysis - Breaking a piece of material into itsparts and explaining the relationship betweenthe parts.

What are the major points that E. B. White

used to develop the thesis of this essay? What factors in the American economy are

affecting the current price of steel? What is the relationship of probability to

statistical analysis?5.Synthesis - Putting parts together to form a

new whole, pattern or structure. How might style of writing and the thesis of a

given essay be related? How are long-term and short-term consumer

loan interest rates related to the prime rate? How would you proceed if you were going to do

an experiment on caloric intake?


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6. Evaluation - Using a set of criteria,established by the student or specified bythe instructor, to arrive at a reasoned

judgment.Does Hemingway use adjectives

effectively to enhance his theme in TheOld Man and the Sea?

How successful would the proposedfederal income tax cut be in controllinginflation as well as decreasing

unemployment?How well does the Stillman Diet meet the

criteria for an ideal weight reduction

plan?


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Lower and Higher Level Questions At times instead of referring to a specific level of the

taxonomy people refer to "lower-level" and "higher-level" questions or behaviors. Lower level questions arethose at the knowledge, comprehension, and simpleapplication levels of the taxonomy. Higher-levelquestions are those requiring complex application (e.g.,

analysis, synthesis, and evaluation skills). Usually questions at the lower levels are appropriate

for:

evaluating students' preparation and comprehension.

diagnosing students' strengths and weaknesses. reviewing and/or summarizing content.


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Questions at higher levels of thetaxonomy are usually most appropriatefor:

encouraging students to think moredeeply and critically.

problem solving.

encouraging discussions.

stimulating students to seek informationon their own.

T i ll i t t ld th l l f


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Typically an instructor would vary the level ofquestions even within a single class period.For example, an instructor might ask thesynthesis question,

"How can style of writing and the thesis of agiven essay be related?"

If she gets inadequate or incorrect studentresponse to that question, she might move to

questions at a lower level of the taxonomy tocheck whether students know and understandmaterial.For example, the instructor might ask,

"What is the definition of 'thesis statement'?" or"What are some variables in writing style?"If students cannot answer those questions, theinstructor might have to temporarily changeher teaching strategy, e.g., briefly review thematerial.


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If students can answer lower levelquestions, the instructor must choose ateaching strategy to help students with

the more complex synthesis which theoriginal questions requires,

e.g., propose a concrete problem which

can be used as a basis for moving to themore abstract synthesis. In the exampleused here, the teacher might direct

students to Jonathan Swift's "ModestProposal" and ask, "What is Swift'sthesis?" and "What are some terms you

can use to describe Swift's writing style?"


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Open and Closed Questions In addition to asking questions at various levels

of the taxonomy an instructor might considerwhether he is asking closed or open questions.

A closedquestion is one in which there are alimited number of acceptable answers, most of

which will usually be anticipated by theinstructor. For example, "What is a definitionfor 'adjective'?" requires that students givesome characteristics of adjectives and their

function. While students may put the answer intheir own words, correct answers will be easilyjudged and anticipated based on a ratherlimited set of characteristics and functions of

adjectives.

A ti i i hi h th


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An open question is one in which thereare many acceptable answers, most ofwhich will not be anticipated by the

instructor. For example, "What is anexample of an adjective?" requires onlythat students name "any adjective." Theteacher may only judge an answer as

incorrect if another part of speech or atotally unrelated answer is given.Although the specific answer may not be

anticipated the instructor usually doeshave criteria for judging whether aparticular answer is acceptable orunacceptable.

Both open and closed questions may be at any


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Both open and closed questions may be at anylevel of the taxonomy.

An open low-level question might be:

"What is an example of an adjective?" An open high-level question might be:

"What are some ways we might solve the energy

crisis?" A closed low-level question:

"What are the stages of cell division?"

A closed high-level question: "Given the medical data before you, would you say

this patient is intoxicated or suffering from a diabeticreaction?"


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QUESTIONING

CATEGORYBLOOM'S CATEGORY STUDENT ACTIVITY TYPICAL STEM WORDS

LOWER LEVEL Knowledge Remembering:FactsTermsDefinitionsConceptsPrinciples

What?ListNameDefine

DescribeComprehension Understanding the

meaning of material

Explain

InterpretSummarizeGive examples ...PredictTranslate

Application Selecting a conceptor skill and using it to

solve a problem

ComputeSolve

ApplyModify

Construct


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QUESTIONING

CATEGORYBLOOM'S

CATEGORYSTUDENT ACTIVITY TYPICAL STEM WORDS

HIGHER LEVEL Analysis Breaking material

down into its partsand explaining thehierarchical relations.

How does ... apply?

Why does ... work?How does ... relate to ...?What distinctions can bemade about ...and...?

Synthesis Producing somethingoriginal after having

broken the materialdown into itscomponent parts

How does the data support...?

How would you design anexperiment whichinvestigates...?What predictions can youmake based upon the data?

Evaluation Making a judgmentbased upon a pre-

established set ofcriteria

What judgments can youmake about ...?

Compare and contrast...criteria for ...?


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MULTIPLE CLASSROOM

TEACHING


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Our National Education Philosophy rightlystresses that education is a life-long

effort towards the all round developmentof the individual.

The implication of this is clear: a personhas the responsibility to continue his orher personal development long after heor she has left school.

However, life-long education can beinterpreted in two ways. The first is toaccept that the situations, events andpeople in a persons life will have an

educative impact.

This ill happen b both accident and


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This will happen by both accident anddesign.

In other words, life will inevitably

educate.However, this may sometimes make the

education process very passive.

The second interpretation emphasis thatpeople actively guide their owndevelopment. They make decisions as towhat direction in life they want to go, and

deliberately take steps to acquire theknowledge, skills and experience neededto bring about the desired personal

changes.


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Mixed Ability Classes : Classroom

Realities in Malaysian Schools

A number of realities concerning the teachingand learning of English in the Malaysian contextneed to be borne in mind.

An ideal language programme caters for theneeds and abilities of each student.

However, a national programme, with acommon syllabus and a central evaluation

system, requires that a reasonable proportionof this common syllabus and a centralevaluation system, requires that a reasonableproportion of this common syllabus be coveredby the teacher


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Multiple Classroom Teaching

Is known as sekolah kurang murid.

The enrollment and total number ofstudents in the whole school is less than100.

This type of schools are found in the ruralareas of Pahang, Sabah and Sarawak.

The students from Year 1 can becombined with students from Year 2,Year 3 with Year 4 and Year 5 with Year

6.


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Teachers teach according to therespective syllabus and the yearlyscheme of work.

The yearly scheme of work is preparedand modified by integrating thecurriculum specification of the respective

classes.eg : CS Year 1 + CS Year 2

CS Year 3 + CS Year 4

CS Year 5 + CS Year 6Teacher prepares the lesson plan,

activities and worksheets according tothe yearly scheme of work.


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Managing multiple classroom

teaching

What can teachers do to cater for the differing

ability students that they are bound to meet in

their teaching career in a multiple classroom?

The problem is not acute when the class is ofapproximately the same language ability

eg: either generally weak or generally

proficient. Here the teacher needs to recognise and take

into account the characteristics of the groupand plan lesson content and strategies

accordingly.


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Remedial and enrichment activitiesbecome necessary in mixed ability

classes when the normal lesson, pitchedat the average class member, needs tobe supplemented for those, possibly themajority, who find the lesson too difficult;

or those, likely to be the minority, whofind the lesson too easy.


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One way of dealing with this difficulty is to takeinto account this mixed ability and differentlevel students when preparing and planning

each lesson.

There are many activities that can be used inthis type of classes such as;

1. Parallel workcards2. Listening activities

3. Non-Verbal Sound and Visual Stimuli

- Sound Sequences- Music

- Pictures

- Learning Styles


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Pair Work

Group Work

Language GamesCommunicative activities

Using songs, poems, choral

speaking, jazz chants,riddles,etc

Role play

Simulation activities


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Parallel Workcards

In planning a reading comprehension

lesson, the same passage can beintroduced to all students in the class.

After the initial introduction activities with

the whole class, the teacher distributes 3work cards;

- one for very able students

- one for average students

- one for less able students

The tasks in each work card would takeinto account the language ability levels of

the students.


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Listening Activities

Special attention should be paid to the positive

role that listening activities can play in thelanguage learning-acquisition process,especially for less able students.

Total Physical Response activities would be

useful in helping students assimilate structuresand vocabulary.

Listening activities can be planned so that thelearner has to respond non-verbally, for

example by acting out an instruction; markingan X in the appropriate box in a worksheet;drawing a picture based on spoken descriptionor rearranging multi-coloured blocks according

to an arrangement given verbally.


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Non- Verbal Sound and Visual

Stimuli

Teachers can cope more easily withdifferent levels and mixed ability classesif some of the teaching materials they

select for presentation to their classes aresuch that they allow for differentresponses from the students.

The most effective materials which permitstudents to respond according to theirability are non-verbal stimuli such as

sound sequences, music and pictures.


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Realities in Malaysian Schools Administrative circumstances oblige teachers to

cover this common syllabus with classes whichaverage 40 or more students.

As far as English is concerned, most of these

classes have students differing widely in theirEnglish language proficiency. Textbooks are written for an imagined average

ability level. Each textbook writers

assumptions concerning this average levelvaries according to his or her own experience. The result of such a teaching-learning situation

is a general teaching strategy which forces theteacher to direct teaching at the class average.


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Realities in Malaysian Schools

This means that a sizeable number ofstudents might need remedial measures

to cope with the programme.

At the same time there would bestudents who find the programme too

simple and would need more challengingenrichment activities


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W6 Questioning TechniquesWk6.ppt

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