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Questioning skills
"Good learning starts with questions, not answers."
Guy Claxton, Professor in Education and Director of CLIO Development
University of Bristol
Questioning enables teachers to check learners' understanding. It also benefits learners as it encourages engagement and focuses their thinking on key concepts and ideas.
This questioning needs to inspire gifted and talented learners to embrace cognitive thought at a higher level and is easier to achieve when using open questions. These questions are often arranged according to their level of complexity; this is called taxonomy. Bloom's Taxonomy is one approach that can be used to help plan and formulate higher order questions.
This type of questioning also actively encourages the development of thinking and dialogue skills.
Relevant documents and links
- Launch pad questioning skills – Overview of questioning skills and how they can be used effectively in teaching.
- KS3 module: Questioning – Training module from Key Stage 3 on improving questioning techniques in school.
- Bloom"s Taxonomy & Holes – Using "Holes" by Louis Sachar with Bloom"s Taxonomy activity.
- Bloom"s Taxonomy in detail – List of the key words for questioning at Bloom"s six taxonomic levels and an overview of the skills demonstrated at each level.
- Bloom"s Taxonomy – Bloom"s Building Blocks.
- Checklist for planning questions – Selection of useful questions that can be used as a checklist for planning and incorporating higher levels of thinking activities into classroom activities.
- Classroom questioning in English – A table showing the different types of questions that can be used to elicit different levels of thinking and learning.
- Dalton categories of questions and Touching the Void – Using "Touching the Void" as text to set activities for Dalton"s Taxonomy.
- Definitions for Bloom"s Taxonomy – Defintions for the six levels of questioning identified in Bloom"s Taxonomy.
- Key words for questioning – Table of key words for questioning at Bloom"s six taxonomic levels.
- KS3 training - alternatives to questions – Table of suggested alternative approaches to direct questioning to encourage discussion.
- Questioning article from the TES – Article first published in the TES about the role of questioning in teaching and how this can be done most effectively today.
- Questioning techniques – Flash film on questioning techniques to use with gifted and talented pupils.
- Questions PowerPoint to match Flash animation – Powerpoint presentation (to match flash animation) on questioning skills.
- Active Questioning Techniques – Active Questioning Techniques.