Blog Post 4- Asking Questions

                     

ASKING QUESTIONS

 What do we need to know about asking questions in order to be an effective teacher? In order to properly insist knowledge upon our students, as teachers we should be required to answer this question properly. It is very important to learn not only what questions to ask and when to ask them but how to ask questions in order to become an effective teacher. Many resources are available in order to learn how to properly ask questions to a class, but the same lesson can be learned from every blog, website, or video- teachers need to know how to properly ask questions in order to properly teach students. Ben Johnson, along with The Teaching Center at Washington University in St. Louis, has discovered to correct way to teach a classroom by simply knowing how to challenge students.


Ben Johnson explains to key to successfully questioning students in his blog "The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom", along with informing readers what teachers are doing incorrectly when asking questions. Johnson explains that teachers need to realize the specific types of students in classrooms, such as the ones who are smart, the ones who do not think they are smart, and the students who do not care. Certain teachers believe that in order to obtain full participation from a class, a question must be directed to the entire class while some teachers believe that a specific student needs to be asked a specific question. Johnson informs readers that the key to asking questions in the correct way, we, as teachers, need to combine these two techniques. For instance, instead of asking one individual a question or asking the class as a whole a question, teachers must ask the entire class a question, wait for each student to have the opportunity to consider what the answer may be, then call on an individual to answer the question. This approach engages the students as a whole, because the students know that someone must answer the question.

The Teaching Center at Washington University in St. Louis instructs teachers how to ask questions to improve learn, both in the classroom and beyond the walls of school. The Teaching Center explains how asking questions in the correct way will ultimately teach students how to learn outside of school. In order to properly ask questions, teachers need to prepare the questions, know the objective of the question, and respond effectively to the students' answers. Questions should be clear and simple, rather than complex. For instance, only one question should be asked at a time, giving the students the opportunity to critically think about one topic. Once a reply is given, without interruption by the teacher, a follow up question should be asked in order to engage and test the students and we, as teachers, need to respond on a way that keeps the students thinking. As teachers, we need to ask a variety of questions and remember that it is very important to be interested in what the students have to say, whether the answer is correct or incorrect. The Teaching Center encourages teachers to learn how to ask questions because "active learning extends beyond the classroom" and it is a teacher's responsibility to encourage students to use these techniques "to asses what they have learned, to develop their thinking skills, and to study for exams".

In order to teach a classroom, teachers must ask questions and engage students. If students are not engaged, they will daydream and not learn. As a teacher, we must be responsible for teaching students how to learn and that begins by knowing how to ask, challenge, and engage our students.