Question, question, question!

Kathryn Langford

2014

Introduction and background

In Further Education (FE) many teachers write ‘question and answer’ as their assessment method or identify questioning as an opportunity to ‘stretch and challenge’, but what questions are actually asked in the classroom?

There has been a lot of research in the school sector, but this has been limited in post-compulsory education. Can we improve ‘learning’ if we can identify when questions are being used and how they are being asked? How can we help FE teachers to analyse their questioning techniques and develop action plans for self-improvement?

Aims of the Research Project• Analyse current questioning practices in FE

using a proforma to record questioning ‘types’ in lessons during observations

• Develop a questioning tool for staff to use to analyse own practice in questioning and to plan for future questioning activity.

• Ask staff to develop a Surveymonkey tool for assessing questioning techniques

Relevant Reading• Ted Wragg (c2000) states that teachers ask

many questions, but most of them lack value and are more about classroom management than eliciting knowledge. In secondary schools only 4% of questions are higher order.

http://www.nationalstemcentre.org.uk/elibrary/resource/9483/questions

• Hastings (2003) suggests that teachers ask up to two questions every minute, wait less than one second for an answer and that questions account for almost a third of all teaching time.

http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=381755

Assessment for Learning (AfL)Jones (2003) analysed the AfL strategy for the 16-19 Vocational Support Strategy. AfL proposes different assessment and feedback strategies that could be used, including asking questions.

Jones states that ‘testing learning is an important part of classroom practice and questioning is one of the most common methods of checking learner understanding .. Developing the skills associated with questioning techniques presents many challenges for teachers and is something that is developed over time’. One of the AfL approaches is ‘no-hands up’, but as this is not often used in FE classes, what else could help better questioning?

• http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/7800/1/AssessmentforLearning.pdf

Assessment for Learning (2)Geoff Petty also talks about Assessment for Learning and the use of questioning techniques by teachers.

A more beautiful question?Berger (2014) states that the ‘average’ four-year-old British girl asks 390 questions a day, so why does this stop and how can we rekindle the questioning spark? Education seems to discourage questioning, perhaps because this involves giving up power in the classroom. Berger states that a journey of inquiry culminates in change and a Why-What if-How model can be used for creativity, innovation and problem solving. Is this what we want for learners in Further Education?

Initial Research• Three lessons in an FE college in the East of England

were observed to see how more formal analysis of questioning techniques could be carried out.

• Afterwards it was

decided that only

the first 15 minutes

of the lesson would

be used for the study. An observation proforma was devised, piloted and redesigned. • Lesson plans used in the observations were

scrutinised to see evidence of planning for questioning.

Method for Data Collection• Seven lesson observations were completed in three

different FE organisations.• Lessons observed included Sport, Public Services,

Forensic Science, Animal Care, Art, Literacy and Accounting and covered different age groups of learners.

• Three FE teachers created questionnaires to analyse questioning approaches, to assess their own current practice. These Surveymonkey questionnaires were analysed to identify the teachers’ views about the questions that they ask.

• All of the data collected was then used to create the Questioning Tool, which three FE teachers piloted and peer reviewed. Time did not allow for further feedback after the lessons had taken place.

Classification of QuestionsDuring lesson observations questions were classed as:

Why? How? Who?

Review Low orderNominated

Check work Completed High Order Volunteer

Check task understood Closed

Check learning understood Open

Motivate/involve

Stretch

General (managerial)

It was also recorded if one question led to another question or lead to another student being asked (bounce).

Observation Results ‘Why?’

33%

10%

4%10%

6%

4%

6%

20%

8%

Pie chart to show proportions of questions classed by purpose of the question

Review

Work completed

Task understood

Learning understood

Motivate & involve

Stretch

General (managerial)

Learning understood & to motivate

Task understood & to motivate

Observation Results ‘How?’

98%

3%

Pie chart to show proportion of questions that were asked as high order or low order ques-

tions

Low order High order

96%

4%

Pie chart to show proportion of questions that were asked as open or closed questions

Closed Open

Observation Results ‘Who?’

54%

46%

Pie chart to show proportion of volunteer and named

learners to answer

Volunteer Named

81%

19%

Pie chart to show proportion of volunteer and named learners to answer, with data from one

observation removed

Volunteer Named

One teacher during the observation asked over 30 questions, usually to named learners which was not considered as typical data when compared with the other 6 observations.

Observation Results

0 1 to 4 5 to 9 >10 0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Graph to compare length of pause between question and answer

(% of questions)

Wait time in seconds

% o

f Q

ues

tio

ns

Observation results summary• On average, in the first 15 minutes of a lesson 8

questions were asked• For 66% of the questions, no thinking time was

given• In most cases only 20% of the questions were

asked to ‘named’ learners• Only 3 or 4% of the questions were higher order

or open questions• 33% of questions were used to review learning

and a further 20% to check learners had understood as a tool to keep them engaged.

• No lesson plans showed the questions had been ‘planned’ in advance.

Teachers’ views about their questions

• They all asked why questions were being used:

Assessment Involve learners

Gain attention Peer feedback

Different views Start discussions

Interact Challenge

Measure progress Connect information• Two mentioned Bloom’s Taxonomy• Two discussed the type of question:

Open Closed Targeted Recall

Multiple Choice Written on Lesson plan

Questioning Tool Design

The data collected was used to design the Questioning Tool and incorporated concepts of:

1. Why ask the questions?

2. How will you ask them?

3. How will learners answer?

4. What type of questions will be asked?

5. Thinking time creates better answers.

6. Why not plan questions beforehand?

ResultsQuestion Tool PowerPoint

Question?

7.Reflect!

6.Next?

1.Why?

4.When?

3.How?

2.What?

5.Answer!

Stages of the Questioning Tool

Feedback from teachers using the Tool‘I think this will really get teachers to think about the questions they are asking.’‘I grew up on 6 questions (who, what why, when, where and how) and these often guide my thought processes. I can definitely see the utility of this tool. I can see how it develops thinking as the class feeds back information. I'd certainly like to use this tool to guide my lesson development.’‘Found your PowerPoint really useful for planning questions on the varying subjects that I deliver and in particular, a really helpful tool for reflecting on what questions worked, what didn't etc., enabling me to change my questioning techniques’.

Conclusion and Recommendations

• Teachers do use a lot of questions in their teaching, but these do not always seem to be effective or for the benefit of learners.

• Teachers are aware that their techniques involve asking questions of themselves, but did not seem to acknowledge that ‘planning’ would improve the success of their questions.

• Teachers could be encouraged to use the questioning tool to improve their ‘Q&A’ until they no longer need a formula to follow. Coaching would support this and observations could be completed at staged intervals to measure the impact of the change on the learners.

• Carry out some more observations at the end of lessons to see if results are similar.

References• Berger W (2014) A More Beautiful Question

Bloomsbury; USA• http://www.nationalstemcentre.org.uk/elibrary/r

esource/9483/questions

• http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=381755

• http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/7800/1/AssessmentforLearning.pdf

• http://www.teacherstoolbox.co.uk/black_and_william.html

• http://www.teacherstoolbox.co.uk/which.html