"What do we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher?"
Every teacher is different and every teacher has different teaching styles; therefore, teachers have different ways to ask questions. The video Asking better questions in the classroom by Joanne Chesley is a great video that explains the difference between open and closed type of questions. Open questions are questions that can be answered and elaborated on while closed questions are questions that a student can answer with either "yes" or "no". I think that teachers should ask questions that are related to the subject. Teachers should know how to ask the question properly instead of throwing extra words in the question that might cause to confuse the student. However, I do agree with Maryellen Weimer and her post Three Ways to Ask Better Questions in the Classroom about playing with the question by leaving the question unanswered and let the students build up information and discuss different answers. I think this is a great idea because it always keeps them on their toes and gives the students something to think about in class.
Another thing that I think we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher is to know the limits of our students that we are teaching. We should not give our students a question that Albert Einstein could not answer, but instead know what they can and can not answer. Also another idea to be effective when asking questions is to start off with easy questions to let the students get their confidence up, and then gradually have the questions get harder as class goes on.
I am the student that pays attention to the topic of discussion in class but never answered during class or raised my hand in class to answer any questions that were asked. I usually keep my thoughts to myself, and there were a lot of times when I am right, but then there are times when I am completely wrong. I never want to chance it because I always feel like I will embarrass myself in front of the whole class. I plan to improve on this as I take this class throughout the summer.
Kai, Good post I didn't see any major grammatical errors. I really liked what you were saying about Maryellen Weimers post and i agree with you about being embarrassed to be wrong in front of the whole class that is something I need to work on as well.
ReplyDeleteHey Kai,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point about the types of questions that we should ask our students. Like you mentioned, we can't give our students questions that only geniuses can answer! This will give the students doubt in their mind that they can't answer questions.
Your last paragraph talks about how hard it is for some students to have confidence to answer questions in class. I believe we as teachers should tell students that it is okay to get the wrong answer. We need to explain that mistakes are a way of learning.
Good job on your post!
Stephen Akins
"Teachers should know how to ask the question properly instead of throwing extra words in the question that might cause to confuse the student. However, I do agree with Maryellen Weimer..." the wording of your sentences I have quoted and what you have written previously in your post lead me to think you disagree with Chesley. Is that correct?
ReplyDelete" I never want to chance it because I always feel like I will embarrass myself in front of the whole class. "It that also the way you play football? Never take chances? Never show what you know how to do and hide what you can't do? If you had a football player who acted like that, what would you do?
I am not sure I agree with you and Stephen about asking difficult questions that you would not expect students to know how to answer. As a freshman at Duke I took an Chemistry for Non Majors course from Dr. Pelham Wilder. About a quarter of the way into the course he gave us a test. The average score was in the twenties I think. The lowest was 4, the highest in the thirties. It was the same test he had given his Ph.D. student earlier in the day. It became an enormously effective tool in helping all of us learn more that we would have otherwise. Don't you keep raising the bar for your football players so they do more than they thought they could?