Questioning is the key means by which teachers find out what pupils already know, identify gaps in knowledge and understanding and scaffold the development of their understanding to enable them to close the gap between what they currently know and the learning goals.

Questions are the most common form of interaction between pupils and teachers, yet research suggests that the majority are recall and comprehension – lower order questions which do not require pupils to actively process information. It is only in active processing that the pupil achieves deep level learning. In order to raise pupils’ levels of achievement they therefore need regular practice in higher order thinking – analysing, synthesising and evaluating. Focusing on the kinds of questions we ask in classrooms and the strategies we use can help us achieve this.

Questions serve a number of essential purposes. For example they:

·        Give immediate feedback on pupils’ understanding, which can then be used by the teacher to modify the teaching.

·        Help pupils to develop their thinking from the lower order concrete and factual recall type to the higher order analytical and evaluative which promote deeper understanding. Higher order questions help pupils explore ideas and make connections, helping pupils see the “big picture” of the learning. This in turn leads to greater motivation and improved engagement.

·        Prompt pupils to inspect their existing knowledge and experience to create new understandings. Articulating understanding helps to clarify it and improves the likelihood that it will be retained.

·        Focus pupils on the key issues and enable teachers and pupils to see progress over time.

·        Model for pupils how experienced learners seek meaning- moving them towards greater independence.

Planning key questions and embedding them early in lesson – often in the learning objective – has been particularly effective. Recording these in medium term plans/ schemes of work has encouraged teachers to share the essence of what they want pupils to know and understand, to communicate this to pupils (sharing learning goals) and to find ways of checking these have been achieved in lessons through plenary activities. It is this feedback which in turn enables teachers to tailor their teaching to what pupils need to know next that enables the assessment to be for rather than of learning.

Planning for fewer, better questions…

·        Clarify your learning intentions – link your key questions to them

·        Plan a few key questions to use, perhaps collaboratively, or within medium term plans

·        Extend the key questions with subsidiary questions to ask.

·        Consider the techniques you will employ – e.g. asking the same child follow up questions to probe understanding. Where will pupils need most “think time”?

·        Analyse the answers you are given and decide on “follow-up” responses

·        Make the questions a focus for recall

Decide on the level and order/timing of questions. Stage them so that the level of challenge increases as the lesson proceeds