Danielson's component 3b: Using questioning and discussion techniques

The urge to write this blog, comes from an article in this month's Educational Leadership by Dylan Wiliam titled, The Right Questions, The Right Way.  It is also a follow up to my colleagues post in January at http://robertblessington.blogspot.com/ and the fact that as of March 1, our teachers @WaukeshaNorth1 need to continue their growth in the area of questioning and discussion techniques as you can see from our classroom walk-through data below.

3b: Questioning and Discussion Techniques                     Level 1- (17)      5%

                                                                                         Level 2- (188)   55%
                                                                                         Level 3- (121)   36%
                                                                                         Level 4- (13)        4%

                                                             

Most classroom questioning occurs when a teacher asks a question, several student raise their hands, the teacher selects one of those with a hand raised, the student gives a response, the teacher evaluates the response, and the cycle begins again. Yet just about every aspect of this scenario actually gets in the way of learning- and it doesn't provide enough information on what most students in the class know and need to learn.

The fundamental flaw in this traditional questioning model is that it makes participation voluntary. A second problem with this approach is that even if a teacher chooses students at random, the teacher will only be assessing the understanding of one or two students. The third problem with this standard questioning model is that teachers rarely plan the questions they use.

The simplest way to improve classroom questioning, and the first step, is simply NOT to ask for volunteers, but instead to choose students at random. Students would only raise their hands to ask questions, not to answer them. "No hands up" may be the most significant thing a teacher can do. 

As a teacher, you shouldn't worry about students answering the question correctly. If the students are answering every one of your questions correctly, then you are wasting their time. If the questions are not causing students to think, they are probably not worth asking.

The no-hands up approach will make discussions more engaging, but this first step still only assesses the learning of a few students. To plan next steps, teachers need information from EVERY student in the class. Quick response using the iPads as whiteboards or the iPads as a quick response formative assessment, allows the teacher to see immediate responses from every student.

Planning questions ahead of time is especially important and is something all teachers should strive to incorporate into their practice.

These three ideas- no hands up, all student response systems, and planning questions ahead of time, allow you to increase the engagement of your students. It will also improve the feedback from the teacher. One teacher described the process as making the students' voices louder and making the teacher's hearing better. Seems like a win-win for us all!