Why Question?
Remember
If you’re going to be a successful educator, you will learn how to ask effective questions.
Teachers use questions to:
- Engage children with learning
- Assess learning, and check for comprehension
- Spark curiosity in response to new information
- Provide an opportunity for sharing opinions and views
- Encourage creative thought and imaginative or innovative thinking
- Foster speculation, hypothesis and opinion forming
- Create a sense of shared learning
- Challenge the level of thinking and possibly move to a higher level of thinking
Questions also allow children to develop language and cognitive skills such as:
- Using narration to describe and explain
- Reporting on past events
- Reasoning, debating, and justifying
- Predicting
- Creating imaginary roles and props
- Maintaining interactions
- Discussing emotions and feelings
- Receiving, acting and building upon answers
- Analyzing and solving problems
- Exploring and evaluating ideas
- Persuading
How?
Asking questions frames the conversation as an inquiry in which both sides are coming together to uncover information. We ask What, where, who, and when questions get a person to clarify the specifics of what he or she is thinking. Why and what if questions allow a person to expand on what he or she is thinking. To get started first reflect on your current use of questions:
- How do you use questions to provide feedback during self-directed learning time (free play)?
- How do you encourage children to practice developing skills by asking questions?
- How do you use questions as a form of assessment?
Now focus on developing questions and listening to children. The chart below is adapted from:
Strasser, J. and Bresson, L. M. (2017). Big Questions for Young Minds. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.
Strasser & Bresson use Bloom’s Taxonomy as a way to illustrate levels of thinking from simple to complex.
| 6 levels from simple to complex | Examples to support Social and Emotional Learning (p. 91) | The skills you will look for
Can the child….? |
|---|---|---|
| Remember | How many deep breaths will you take to relax? Let’s count.
What shape are you making in your Zen garden? |
Identify, Name, Count Repeat, Recall |
| Understand | What happened first that made you upset in the block area? What happened next? How were you feeling then? | Describe, Discuss, Explain, Summarize |
| Apply | Tell me (or act out) a time when you were proud.
Think of a time when you were peaceful and glad. Where were you? Who were you with? |
Explain why, Dramatize, Identify with, Relate to |
| Analyze | Show children the pictures in When Sophia Get Angry-Really Really Angry. Then say “Tell me about Sophie’s 2 extreme emotions.”
How does your body feel when you are excited? How does your body feel when you are afraid? How are the feelings the same/different? |
Recognize change, Experiment, Infer, Compare, Contrast |
| Evaluate | If you see someone fall when we are outdoors, what could you do to make them feel safe and cared for?
When you feel like yelling or throwing something, why is it a good idea to calm yourself with yoga, playing in the sand, or smelling the aromatherapy pillow? |
Express opinion, Judge, Defend, Criticize |
| Create | Which yoga pose would you like me to photograph you in for your page in our classroom yoga book?
How can we make a peace corner? What kinds of materials should we put in this area? |
Make, Construct, Design, Author |
Practice writing appropriate questions for your classroom. Think about the developing skills you want to promote in the children.
| 6 levels from simple to complex | Your Question or Conversation Starter | The skills you will look for from specific children: |
|---|---|---|
| Remember | ||
| Understand | ||
| Apply | ||
| Analyze
|
||
| Evaluate
|
||
| Create
|
When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new. DALAI LAMA XIV
