 Good morning teachers. The topic of today's class is questions as an important tool in the teaching learning process. The objectives of my class will be to show you the important role played by questions in the teaching learning process. Most people think that questioning is easy and straightforward. Nothing can be further from the truth. The ability to frame good questions is a skill that all teachers must aspire to have. It is often said that teachers are adults who ask questions to which they already know. Anecdotally, a 6-year-old boy once refused to answer his teacher what 10 plus 12 was equal to. He remarked that he already knows that I know the answer, so I don't know why she is asking. This example tells us teachers the need to frame their questions carefully and they must know the purpose of their questions. Teachers need not only to know the purpose of their questions but ensure that their students also know. Secondly, asking questions is a central point around which any subject revolves. Questionings help to establish a rapport between the students and the teacher in class. It helps to develop and maintain a healthy and intellectual climate in the classroom. It assists in motivating students to perform and it helps the teacher to elicit information such as how much the children know about the subject before it is introduced. It helps to revise earlier learning and consolidate recent learning. It helps students to focus and clarify and thus have thoughts and perceptions that he may not have had otherwise had. So the important point to consider is while asking questions we need to remember two important aspects. Does the question encourage students to think or does the question require only factual recall and limited recall? According to modern research comprehension and analysis should be emphasized rather than memory. Another important aspect of question indicates how much scope we are trying to give the students to develop their own meaning. They must be given ample scope to give a range of answers to a question. Here are some guidelines that will help teachers to enhance questioning skills. Firstly, be sure that the question is clear in your mind. Think through what you want to ask your students before you ask them a question. State the question without calling on a student otherwise the others will ignore the question. After framing the question pause, then only call on a student to respond. This is called wait time. There should be at least 2-4 seconds after the question. Then the student is called to answer. Ask only one question at a time. Multiple part questions are confusing and likely to cause misunderstandings. We often see whether it's an order or in written, especially in written. There are always riders to the question, who is Tom? What did he do on Monday? There are too many parts in a question that the child gets confused. Break it up into single questions. Use recall questions first to be sure the students have the knowledge. Then proceed to comprehension analysis questions. Follow up with evaluation questions. You build up from easy questions to more difficult questions. This is very important. Use probing and prompting perhaps the most important of questioning skills. Now, what is probing and prompting? Prompting involves giving hints to help the child. Prompt back with encouragement from the teacher helps students to reply more confidently. Prompting is necessary for getting additional information and directs the student to think more deeply. For example, you can ask a child, Priya, you went to Delhi recently for your holidays. What did you like about Delhi? So the 7-year-old child will say, Delhi was very nice. So the teacher says, I have never been to Delhi. What is nice about Delhi? Then she will give you more information. I liked India Gate. Oh, I was very excited to go on the metro. And also miss, I liked the ice cream and the chart. So now just by leading the child on, you have got the child to think more deeply and to focus on sounds, sight, food. You've got not more information from her. So prompting and probing are very important. If a student does not give a complete answer, even if the question is clear, it might be better for you to restate it by breaking it down to smaller pieces. Sometimes you ask the child the question says, I don't know. Then you go to the next child. When you do that, the child who doesn't know gets a negative feeling. So better than that, ask the question again and say, look, I know you know. You rephrase the question before you go on. The teacher should not accept, I don't know, as the final answer. Probing means to go deeper. The teacher has to be patient. Through probing and prompting, even simple recall questions can lead to new learning. So shifting interaction. This is redirecting the class discussion from one student to another. If the student's response is incomplete or incorrect, the responsibility for the question is shifted to another student. Positive reinforcement should be provided to the student and the same question should be redirected to the second or even third student. So this is to encourage classroom discussion. If one child answers a part of the question, it's for the second part to another child and so this encourages discussion. Ask open and closed questions. That is allow the pupils to put into words what is in their minds to interpret new knowledge in the light of what they already know. It's very important to see that the difficulty level of the question must be matched with ability of the students of the class. The question should be framed in such a way that 70% of the students are able to answer the questions. There must be a disciplined atmosphere in the class. Even when the students contribute to discussions, the interaction must be controlled so that the class can listen attentively. Most importantly, the teacher must respect the views of the student, even if it is different from one's own. Sometimes if you ask an open-ended question, a child may have a different point of view. You can't put down the child except that and say, alright, but I think this is the answer. The next point to remember is to do an analysis of the question types used. How successful the exercise was and whether the teacher was able to move from the lower order to the higher order questioning and how many students were involved in the process. After I finish asking my questions, I have to see. Now, how good was I? How many students were I able to involve? Did I have all the questions done? Did I have a balanced question paper? Did I even question in class? Questions fall under two categories, questions that test knowledge and questions that create knowledge. The former are referred to as lower order cognitive questions and the latter two, higher order cognitive questions. Recall questions are useful in testing, learning and focusing attention, but question sessions must be made up of not only recall questions, but because they place too much emphasis on rote learning. But we also have to mix it up with the amount of higher order thinking to encourage children to think. Now, there are many types of questions and I will give you some examples of that. You may list the question types as follows. The naming questions, examples, name the nine planets of the universe. Simple recall questions like, for example, when was the battle of Kalinga fought? Then you have observation questions. You keep the Chilna map and then you say, from the map provided, name the rivers of Assam. Then you have the reasoning questions. Example, what prompted Ashoka to give up war? Then you have the speculated questions. Speculated means thinking. How do you think people felt when King Ashoka announced that he would give up war? This is an open-ended question. Children can have their own answers. The teacher here must be respectful and have patience to listen to all the children's questions. Emphatic questions are, if you are Ashoka, what would you have said to the King of Kalinga after your victory? Here the child has a chance to think of what he feels so he gets involved. Problem solving, what evidence is there to show that the people of Indus Valley treated with Mesopotamia. Synthesizing questions. Imagine that you are travelling along the river Brahmaputra. Describe what you observed about the features of the river from its source to its mouth. So that is putting together. Synthesizing means bringing together. Close questions. This is a very traditional type of question. What happened to King Ashoka at the Battle of Kalinga? So this is a textual question. There are some high-order thinking questions. There are some lower-order questions. They are all different types. Now here I would like to tell you that you must have heard of the Barnes-Noble and the Bloom and Turney. The Barnes-Noble is one type of question. He categorizes questions as factual, reasoning, open, non-reasoning and social questions. So he has these types. Bloom and Turney model Barnes-Noble has recall, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesizing and evaluation. So all these fall under these categories. Now after you have finished your questioning exercise, you have to test yourself. Test to see if you have conducted yourself in a balanced manner. You have to keep testing yourself also. Record the questions and use a grid to see how many of each question type you use, how many recalls did I use, how many observations did I use, how many reasoning, speculative, empathetic, problem-solving, synthesizing, closed. Did I give them all the question types? Now then I have to see now. Recall would be very easy to answer. They are just straight factual questions so I have to break up my paper into percentages. So many I will give up this, so many of this, so many of this. You have to have your own assessment. So are you satisfied at the end of the class, even if it was all at the end of the class, I asked them these many questions. Did I include all the question types? Or did I not? So that is very easy for you to do. Now what are the points to follow for effective? Now what can I do to be effective in teaching? I must use simple and conversational language. If the students are unable to answer the question, rephrase the question instead of going to the next student. So the language you use must be very simple. The child must understand what you are saying. You must create a friendly and atmosphere-free from fear. So children are afraid they will not answer you. Teachers must know the purpose of their question. This is very important. Why am I asking this question? Am I asking because I want to know the children know their facts? Am I asking to encourage thinking? You must have a purpose to every question. This is what teachers don't do and that is why they are not effective. Teachers must be interested to hear students' answers. They must be patient and they have to be respectful. Questions must be in tune with the social context of the class and the subject content. Teachers must try to arouse curiosity, sense of challenge and energy. The teacher must try to raise the level of thinking amongst the class by correctly sequencing the question. See, your purpose is to make your class think, to develop their thinking capacity. So you have to also plan your questioning. Now there are several methods now for example extending. What does that mean? It means you keep asking the same kind of questions. What is your purpose to see if they know the text? Then you can do extending and lifting. First you ask the same kind of questions and then you give them an analytic question or give them a reasoning question. Step by step is asking a sequence of questions. You move from recall to problem solving and to evaluation. Then funneling is you begin with an open-ended question and then you narrow it down to a simple recall question. So there are many techniques. Remember to always call a student by his or her name. Praise a correct answer. Rephrase questions if it is incorrect answers given rather than asking a different student. Encourage students to ask each other questions. Give everyone a chance. Now in a classroom there are some students who are very bright, very intelligent and some students who are slower. So when I ask a question I have to be careful who am I asking what question. There are certain types that I ask the brightest students. I want to encourage both types. I want to encourage development in both the students. The aim of teaching are the same but the slower learner takes longer and needs more patience handling by the teacher especially in the early stages. Open questions are suggested for both the slower and the quick learners. Involvement, motivation, confidence building and the use of correct concrete examples should be used more frequently for the slower learners. Alright now for the quick learners use more complex open, freer questions. For the slow learners you use revision questions not only to make sure they have not forgotten but also to create a sense of well-being that they know and are getting praise. Now for the quick learners be aware the danger of boredom and frustration given everyone a chance, set and mark follow up work carefully. Now you will find that the bright students are very restless in the class that is often because they are bored they understand so quickly that they get bored. So keep giving them work. Use for the slow learners your concrete experience and carefully planned questions to keep them in courage use leading questions to aim to get them to the same place as the brighter ones. Frame challenging questions they like this and usually rise to the challenge. Now the slow learners must not feel that they are getting easy question because they are stupid. The question should be difficult enough to provide a sense of achievement but not too difficult to discourage. The bright students need to be shocked sometimes with difficult questions and force them to think and to have the pleasure of achievement widen their outlook. The slow learners use step by step approach by entertainment and instill confidence. The bright students should use simple questions then go deeper. Remember that the bright children also need encouragement. Simple questions, simple answers break questions into parts suggest one or two probable answers in your question. For example you say give me the reason why Ashoka give up work. So you already give them two and then say I know he gave up work because so many people died and he felt very sad. He gave up work because it was expensive. So what else do you think is a reason? So give them two answers and say give me one more reason. Now explain more abstract concepts be precise and accurate. Use sequence of questions to show logical development. Explain patterns, underlying methods making some concepts not cluttered with difficult numbers. Use concrete examples simple step by step approach. Expect recently acquired knowledge to be retained by the brighter students. Now for the slow learners ask open-ended question which most people can answer. Direct some at individuals you know have a special interest. For the bright students ask for more reasons, ask them to apply their knowledge. And for the slow learners ask them questions and narrow down alternatives. For example you say is it because of this or is it or it is this yes or no. Don't teach differently only take longer. Ask deeper questions and more open options but do not overdo it. Try to make them realize there are cause and effects beyond the obvious. Use simple language help them to realize they can get the right answer and spot their mistakes. Get some idea of what they already know. Use question to develop a picture of facts. With this we come to the end of the presentation. Questions are important tools that can be used by teachers to teach any subject. If used thoughtfully they can raise the level of thinking among the students in a class and to create a lively energetic atmosphere in which children learn. I have here some questions for you which I want you to listen to very carefully so that we can discuss what question types they are. Do they fulfill all the norms that we have talked about? Are they good questions or can they be improved on? The first question is why was Egypt called the gift of the Nile? Do you think this is a good question? This is a question that we see very often. It's a standard closed question but it could be improved on if you just say give me two reasons why you think Egypt is called the gift of the Nile. Now you are dealing with primary students and you don't want them to write. You have to be specific in your question also that I want two reasons why I want three reasons, why I want four reasons so it's better if you don't confuse the child and say exactly how many reasons you want. Now look at this question. Why was Haesos able to conquer Egypt? What do you think is going to him after Egypt regained its power? Why do you hear little of them? Would you say this is a good question? What is wrong with this question? Yes, you are right. The structure is very confused. There are too many parts. This can be broken up into three small questions. Now the third question is how did the writing methods and materials of the Babylonians differ from those of the Egyptians? Would you call this a good question? What does it do? Which category will it fall under? Yes, it falls under the reasoning question. It's a good question. The advantage this question has is in one question you are testing the children's knowledge on both Babylonian and the Egyptian writing methods. So in one question you are getting you are able to test the children whether they know both Babylonian and Egyptian and whether they can differentiate between the two. It would be better if you could say give me two instead of saying how did the writing method of material differ from those you can say give me two differences between the Babylonian method and the Egyptian method or you can say the two similarities. Now number four which of the Egyptian gifts of civilization do you consider most valuable? What kind of question type is this? Think properly which of the Egyptian gifts to civilization do you consider most valuable? This is a open-ended question. The students will write what they think it may not be the same everyone may have a different answer you have given children to think and to write their views on the Egyptian civilization. Can you think of two reasons why your city of Gohati is located where it is? This question is definitely for the brighter students This is a synthesizing question the child will base his answer on the knowledge that he's already gained on why river valley civilization came up along the rivers and will apply that knowledge to this question. Thank you teacher trainees I hope that this this lesson has helped you to think a little bit more seriously when you frame your questions whether it is in class or whether it's in the form of a pen and paper test it's very important what you can do how much time you take to frame your questions and the effects of this are very great.