A questioning classroom: The purpose and timing of your questions

So far in this series, we have seen how asking questions can be a great way to encourage active participation and critical thinking. But it is important to use questions purposefully.

Asking too many questions without a clear purpose or without giving students adequate time to respond can potentially have negative effects on the learning environment. Here are some ways to ensure questions have purpose:

• Quality over quantity: Focus on asking thoughtful and open-ended questions that promote deeper understanding and encourage meaningful discussions.
• Give time for thought: Allow students sufficient time to process the question and formulate responses. Rushing through questions may hinder students' ability to engage in higher-order thinking. Implementing “wait time” after asking a question gives students a chance to think and encourages deeper thinking and more thoughtful answers.
• Vary question types: Use a mix of question types, including factual, analytical, evaluative, and application-based questions. Varying the types of questions keeps students engaged and addresses different levels of cognitive thinking.
• Avoid rapid-fire questioning: Rapidly firing multiple questions without allowing for substantial responses can be overwhelming for students and hinder their engagement. Instead, encourage students to ask questions and lead discussions. This empowers students to take ownership of their learning and contributes to a more dynamic classroom environment.
• Use questions to guide exploration: Use questions to guide students' exploration of a topic or concept. Allow them to engage in inquiry-based learning by investigating and seeking answers.
• Reflect on timing: Consider when and where in the lesson you ask questions. Use questions strategically to introduce a topic, check understanding, or encourage reflection. Ensure that all students have opportunities to respond to questions. Avoid relying solely on a small group of active participants.
• Give feedback: Use questions to assess student understanding, identify misconceptions, and provide timely feedback. Balance assessment-related questions with those that encourage exploration and critical thinking. But engage in a natural and authentic dialogue with students rather than turning the classroom into an interrogation. Monitor students' body language, participation, and reactions to gauge if they are engaged and responsive to your questions.
  
  

Creating a questioning classroom: A five-part SecEd series

• Part 1: 13 techniques for teachers: Published November 1
• Part 2: 38 Socratic questions for your teaching: Published November 8
• Part 3: How to encourage debate and discussion: Published November 15
• Part 4: The purpose and timing of questions: This article
• Part 5: Practical questioning techniques: Published November 28.

Matt Bromley has also appeared on an episode of the SecEd Podcast focused on great teacher questioning in the secondary school classroom. Find this episode here.

A question of timing

As well as considering what questions to ask, we need to think carefully about when to ask questions. The timing of questions in class can significantly affect student engagement and understanding. Different moments during a lesson serve different purposes for questioning. It might help to consider the following “trigger points” when timing your questions:

• The beginning of the lesson: You could start the lesson with an open-ended question related to the topic. This will activate students' prior knowledge and set the scene for the upcoming discussion. Wording learning objectives as questions can be powerful – particularly how? or why? type questions which provoke deeper thinking and discussion.
• During teacher explanations: You could ask questions as part of your direct instruction – explanations and modelling – in order to check for understanding. You could, for example use questions to guide students' attention to key concepts, definitions, or important details.
• During guided practice and group work: You could incorporate questions into group discussions, problem-solving activities, and hands-on projects. Questions can guide and scaffold students' thinking as they engage with the material. During think-pair-share activities, you could ask a question, have students think individually, pair up to discuss, and then share their thoughts with the class. This strategy encourages collaboration and provides time for deeper thinking before sharing with the whole group.
• After presenting new content: You could pause after presenting new information and ask questions to reinforce understanding. You could use questions to encourage students to summarise the content in their own words.
• Before task transitions: You could ask a question before transitioning to a new topic or activity. This will help refocus students' attention and prime them for the upcoming content.
• During reflection and in plenaries: You could use questions to prompt students to reflect on what they have learned. You could also end the lesson with a question that encourages students to connect the new knowledge they have acquired to prior understanding.
• …and all times in-between! In addition to the above, you could space questions throughout the lesson to maintain a steady level of engagement. This will prevent periods of passive listening and keep students actively involved and on their toes.

Remember, though, that the best time to ask questions depends on the specific lesson, learning intentions, and the dynamics of your class. As with all aspects of the classroom, context is all, and pragmatism is key.

The goal is to create a rhythm that keeps students engaged and encourages them to think critically, while also allowing time for reflection and application of the content.

Collaborative questioning

Passing questions from student to student can be a dynamic and effective way to promote discussion and deepen students' understanding. Strategies like think-pair-share encourage all students to engage with the material and respond to each other's perspectives.

Here are some other methods for passing questions around the classroom:

Question chains

• Start by asking an open-ended question related to the topic of discussion.
• After one student responds, ask that student to pose a follow-up question to another student in the class.
• Encourage the recipient of the question to respond and then pass on a new question to another classmate.
• Continue this chain until most or all students have had the opportunity to contribute.

Question cards

• Prepare question cards with open-ended questions related to the lesson.
• Distribute the cards randomly to students.
• Instruct each student to answer their question and then select another question from the stack to ask their peer.
• This method allows students to engage in thoughtful discussions with a variety of questions.

Pass the parcel

• Divide the class into small groups of three or four students.
• Start a discussion by posing an initial question.
• After a few minutes, or when the music stops, instruct one student from each group to “pass” the conversation to another group by sharing their group's key insights or questions.
• This encourages students to synthesise their group's discussion and share diverse perspectives.

Gallery technique

• Post a series of questions on different positions around the classroom.
• Divide students into small groups and assign each group to a starting position.
• Instruct students to discuss and respond to the question at their assigned position.
• After a set time, have groups rotate to the next position and continue the discussion based on the new question.

Think-pair-share PLUS

• Begin with an initial open-ended question.
• Ask students to individually write down their response to the question.
• Then have students pair up and discuss their responses.
• Next ask each pair to come up with a new question related to the topic and share it with another pair.
• Continue this process to create a chain of discussions and new questions.

Reflection journals

• Distribute journals to students and provide them with a prompt or question related to the topic.
• Have students write their responses.
• Afterwards ask them to exchange journals with a peer and respond to their classmate's entry.

Promote progress through questioning

Asking questions of increasing complexity in the classroom is a strategic way to scaffold students' learning and to promote the gradual mastery of a topic. This approach helps students build upon their existing knowledge and encourages them to engage in deeper levels of thinking. Here's one way you can structure questions to increase complexity:

1. Start with recall and factual questions: Begin with questions that assess students' basic recall of facts, key terms, and information. These questions help establish a foundation of knowledge and ensure everyone is on the same page.
2. Move to comprehension and application: Once students have a grasp of the foundational facts/concepts, progress to questions that require them to comprehend and apply this information. Ask questions that prompt students to explain concepts, interpret information, or apply knowledge to new scenarios.
3. Introduce analysis and comparison: Transition to questions that require students to analyse information, relationships, and patterns. Encourage them to compare and contrast concepts, identify cause-and-effect relationships, and analyse data.
4. Pose evaluation and synthesis questions: Challenge students with questions that involve the evaluation and synthesis of information. Ask them to critically assess ideas, arguments, or solutions. Have them synthesise multiple pieces of information to form new insights.
5. Encourage reflection and prediction: Include questions that prompt students to reflect on their learning journey and predict potential outcomes. Ask for their opinions, personal connections, and predictions based on their understanding.
6. Use ‘what if’ and hypothetical questions: Incorporate hypothetical scenarios to encourage students to think beyond the immediate context. Ask questions that start with “what if” to explore alternative possibilities and encourage creative thinking.
7. Interleave multiple concepts: Create questions that interleave concepts from different parts of the curriculum. This challenges students to synthesise information from various sources and demonstrate a holistic understanding. It also helps the development of schema and aids transferability.
8. Offer feedback and encourage redrafting: Provide feedback on students' responses to complex questions. Encourage them to refine their answers based on your feedback and deeper reflection. Redrafting or improving by increments should be the default position.

Questioning as a form of retrieval practice

Questions play a crucial role in retrieval practice, a powerful learning strategy that involves actively recalling information from memory.

Retrieval practice strengthens long-term retention, promotes deeper understanding, and enhances students’ ability to apply knowledge.

Questions can serve as prompts for retrieval practice, guiding students to recall information they've previously learned.

Here's how questions can be used as a form of retrieval practice:

1. Questions can be used to prompt recall: Questions act as triggers that prompt students to retrieve information they've learned. When students actively recall information, they reinforce their memory traces and make the information more accessible in the future.
2. Questions can promote active engagement: Answering questions requires students to actively engage with the material rather than passively reviewing notes or texts. This active engagement enhances learning and strengthens memory retention.
3. Questions can be spaced and interleaved: Retrieval practice often involves spacing out practice sessions over time. By revisiting information at intervals, students strengthen their memory over the long term. Interleaving, meanwhile, involves mixing different topics or concepts during practice. Interleaving enhances learning by encouraging students to discriminate between different ideas.
4. The act of attempting to answer questions simulates a form of testing. Being tested on material leads to better retention compared to passive study methods.
5. When students answer questions, they gain insights into what they know and what they need to review further. Incorrect answers provide feedback that guides future study efforts and helps identify areas for improvement. This helps students to become metacognitive and self-regulated as learners. The process of retrieving information strengthens the connections in the brain, making it easier to retrieve that information in the future. This effect, known as the testing effect or retrieval practice effect, boosts long-term retention. What’s more, retrieval practice enhances students' ability to transfer knowledge to new contexts. When they practice retrieving information in different scenarios, they become better equipped to apply that knowledge flexibly.
6. Questions are an efficient self-study technique. Retrieval practice is a more efficient study technique compared to more passive methods like reading and rereading study notes. Spending focused time on active recall leads to more enduring learning outcomes. Using a variety of question types, including multiple-choice, short answer, and essay questions, can further engage different cognitive processes which helps students practice retrieving information in diverse ways.

Next time

Next time, I will share some questioning techniques you can put into immediate practice in your classroom.

• Matt Bromley is an education journalist, author, and advisor with 25 years’ experience in teaching and leadership including as a secondary school headteacher and academy principal and multi-academy trust director. Matt is the lead lecturer on a national initial teacher training programme as well as a school improvement advisor. He remains a practising teacher. Matt is the author of numerous books on education and co-host of the award-winning SecEd Podcast. Find him on X (Twitter) @mj_bromley. Read his previous articles for SecEd via www.sec-ed.co.uk/authors/matt-bromley