By Ruth Oji

QUESTIONING is a tool that has long been in use by teachers. A quote credited to Albert Einstein says, “If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.” 

Judging from this quote and applying it to teachers, they need to have the art of asking the right questions that would help them draw out their students and achieve both teaching and learning goals.

This focus on determining the right questions to ask is pertinent for teachers as this would help them to lead students in little or no time to right answers. 

According to Mosaic projects (2011, pp. 2, 3), ‘a powerful question generates curiosity in the learner, stimulates reflective conversation, is thought-provoking, surfaces underlying assumptions, invites creativity and new possibilities, generates energy and forward movement, channels attention and focuses inquiry, stays with participants, touches a deep meaning, and evokes more questions.’ A good teacher uses well thought-out questions to generate these and more. 

However, when questions are poorly constructed, learning is inhibited as students may become confused, be intimidated, and even resent the teacher. It therefore becomes necessary that teachers equip themselves with the art of questioning so that their students will love the subjects taught and willingly and eagerly participate in class discussions.

The goal of questioning for every communication is to promote understanding. Questions are thus asked to probe, elicit, ignite thoughts, and promote a clearer understanding of the subject matter being taught. Because students ask questions during interactions in class, it is pertinent for teachers to understand the focus of the questions and the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of them. This helps them to proffer right answers that clarify issues for the students. When teaching, it is important that the teacher assesses the understanding of the students by determining if they follow the topic being taught, and here, questions become very useful.  Several kinds of questions can be used to get students very quickly to the point. The kind of question to be used at a time by a teacher is determined by the goal of the question, which is what the teacher wants to achieve by asking the question. A teacher who wants to have meaningful engagement and interaction with students will endeavour to use questioning in a way that creates an ambience that stimulates students to think and be motivated to learn. Also, a good teacher will use well-crafted questions to get students to focus on key learning points, to find out whether they are interested in the lesson and the reasons for any positions taken, as well as to prompt them to not only appreciate but also think in line with applying concepts learned from the lesson to real life situations.

Teacher questioning

It is valuable that teachers evolve from the traditional way of asking questions – a method hinged on students repeating to teachers exactly what they have been taught. That is simply a recitation of points and does not encourage students to develop their critical thinking skills. Therefore, teachers are encouraged to use not only simple recall questions but higher order questions to get their students to think outside the box. 

The truth is that when learners find themselves as active co-constructors of the learning experience, they are more likely to be actively involved in the process. For this to happen, thought-provoking questions must be used to engage the students. Furthermore, students would need to be invited to make predictions, summarise, link, texts with one another and with background knowledge, generate and answer text related questions, clarify understandings, muster relevant evidence to support an interpretation, and interrelate reading, writing, and discussion. Only higher order questions can be used to test and exercise the advanced cognitive abilities of students to get them achieve the points noted above. This will, in turn, help them learn to apply higher level thinking in all they do. They can transfer learning outside of the classroom. What is more, they are helped to make better decisions in life when they develop reasoning skills. When students are merely lectured and not interacted with in class through the deployment of questions that work, teachers may lose them. On the contrary, when students are well-engaged in class by the use of questions that get them to think critically, they show that they enjoy the lessons and always look forward to them, and undoubtedly, that is when real learning takes place.

Certain theories have been developed in a bid to expatiate the concept of questioning. One is a goal-based model developed by Ram (1991). This model focuses on question-driven information-seeking, and it forms the basis for active goal-based learning processes. Though it a model for computer systems, it is adapted in such a way that it suits the classroom situation, and as such, the model focuses on knowledge goals which must be understood and identified to lead a reasoner to specific understanding.

This theoretical model is premised on the notion that asking questions is central to understanding. This question-driven understanding model focuses on issues of content and process. For content, the kind of questions there are and how a reasoner knows which questions to ask are to be considered. For process, to be considered are the differences that questions make, the effect that they have on the understanding process, how they affect what one learns, and how questions are managed in the memory. 

This theory of questions is based on a functional account of the role of questions in understanding and learning. People are adjudged as having questions in their minds even before some information is passed on to them. On the basis of that new information, their previous questions are answered, and newer questions are raised. When teachers keep in mind that students have some background knowledge regarding some topics taught, this will help them determine their students’ level of understanding on the subject matter and then decide what kinds of questions would be useful to help answer questions students may have. 

•Dr. Oji is a Senior Lecturer of English at the Institute of Humanities, Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos