Blog Post #4

The million dollar question for this assignment is "What do we need to know about asking questions in order to become an effective teacher". The resources I explored provided many different answers to this question. I'll start by discussing “The Right Way to Ask Questions in the classroom”. The author wants us to know that the way we question students’ needs to change!! After reading the post, I began to think of just how much the dynamic of the classroom is changing. GOOD teachers are beginning to realize some of the error of their ways and are taking the steps to make improvements to the way they ask their students’ questions. The author tells readers that many teachers ask questions to see if students have gained an understanding for what they were just taught. However, he raises an important issue about this method being ineffective because of the fact that some students don’t’ REALLY know if they understand or not. Another questionable form of questioning is the “yes or no” approach. In this approach students have a 50/50 chance of getting the answer correct and can easily guess which way their teacher would prefer the question to be answered. Instead Ben suggests randomly calling on students to answer questions so that the students who identify themselves in certain way (smart, dumb, uninterested) won’t be able to avoid verbally responding to questions just because someone else volunteers to do so.

Questions should be specific! This was an important component in the resource entitled “Asking Questions to Improve Learning”. After reading the information provided I found that many different concepts help you be effective when asking questions. For example, teachers should avoid asking leading question. Students often catch on and as a result do not actually master certain concepts. Another way to improve the effectiveness of questions is to ask different types; a mixture. A mixture of questions is more beneficial to teachers in helping with the learning process. If a teacher wants to spark a debate he or she might consider open ended questions. While if a teacher was looking to evaluate how much information a student has retained or how well they can relate material they learned to questions asked, he or she may considered closed ended questions. With this assignment I’ve learned that there is a lot I need to know about asking questions in order to become an effective teacher. Most importantly, be specific in what I am asking!