Question Your Way to Success

A traditional Maths classroom has one person called the teacher lecturing to a group of students, the learners. Communication is one way most of the times. This was the kind of Maths classrooms that I got taught in. Most of my colleagues whom I have interacted with enjoyed the same sense of peace and quiet in their Maths classrooms. But I am not a peaceful or quiet person in any way. I am loud! I am busy! I an energetic!

When I became a teacher, I did not know a lot about general teaching, forget about teaching the most dreaded subject that mankind could ever develop with complete interventions from the Almighty. But I was sure of the fact that I cannot let my students wander in their own world while I take them to the MathWorld. So probably that was the very basic reason that questions formed a part of my lesson planning from the very beginning of my teaching journey. In my Teacher Training institution, I was used to be given the task of presenting micro teaching lessons emphasizing  Questioning teachnique. That boosted my natural inclination towards questioning tool in my Maths pedagogy.

But today I know Questioning does a lot more in the Maths classroom than just making the students talk

·         Introduction – Questions can be used to introduce a concept, by testing the previous knowledge of the learners as well as linking their previous knowledge to the new concept.

·         Interest Stimulation – Questions keep the students focussed and give them something to think about all the time, thereby making them active participants of the teaching learning process.

·         Formative Testing – Questions are an effective formative assessment tool both for testing the student knowledge and comprehension development as well as for the teacher to gauge the effectiveness of the lesson being delivered.

·         Doubt Clarification – Questions posed by the teacher or other students help the entire class in clarifying and answering any doubts that may get inherently brushed aside while the teacher merely lectures.

·         Cognitive Rainbow Accessed – Questions can be posed not just to check the knowledge gained, but the comprehension developed, the applicational qualities imbibed, the skills mastered, the logical and creative thinking.

·         Link to real life – Questions help the concept at hand to be linked to the real life. Questions that challenge students to apply the concepts and principles introduced help them in making real life linkages on their own.

·         Disciplining – Questions ensure that the students remain engaged in the classroom proceedings thereby reducing the number of indiscipline referrals.

Most teachers encourage their students to ask questions in the class. But most of the times, its a small majority who naturally take interest in the lesson and pose questions. Majority loves to take the back seat and be passive onlookers. Teacher asking questions to the students has a different appeal. It keeps all of them hooked on the concept and the class proceedings. One question asked from a student losing focus, quickly brings everybody’s attention back to their work, thereby helping in dealing with probable in disciplined acts constructively.

Even when teachers do ask questions in the class, they are directed at the lowest level of cognition requiring only recapitulation, clarification, or factual responses.

There are a few things a teacher can do to increase its effeciency. One method is simply to change the way in which questions are asked. Periodically calling on students is a long-held method to determine which students are understanding the material and which are paying attention. The only downside to this approach is that some students are terrified to speak before a group, and when surprised with a quickly-delivered question the student may “freeze.” One approach that often helps students is to teach them to quickly sketch out a response to a question in their notes. When posing questions, I try and pause for 15 to 30 seconds and then call on students. The length of the pause can be adjusted based on the cognitive complexity of the expected response.

Another method is to give some “thinking” questions or calculations at the end of class and tell students the next class will begin with students being called on to respond to those items. Finally, it is sometimes helpful to focus attention on a small ‘blessed area’ of the class and wait for a response from a student volunteer. This increases “pressure” for someone in that area to respond.

In addition to getting a variety of students regularly responding to questions posed in the classroom, it is important that the responses increase in cognitive levels as the teaching year progresses. Keep in mind that, although there are many degrees of cognitive complexity, for planning purposes three levels are particularly important: remembering, applying, and evaluating (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001). At the lowest level, remembering questions help to ascertain whether the students have the facts i.e. Knowledge. Can they recall or recognize basic information.

Examples include:

• What is a parallelogram?

• What is the commutative property of addition of integers?

Median level application questions require students to use information to:

(a) deduce the differences and similarities between concepts

(b) apply formulas to new problems,

(c) relate theoretical abstractions to real situations, or

 (d) analyze patterns of relationships among concepts and develop generalizations from them. Examples include:

Is every polygon a parallelogram?

How many integers lie between -3 and 4?

Evaluation questions require students to exercise judgment—one of the higher levels of cognition. Students must choose the best alternatives or solutions and be able to justify those choices (in other words, to demonstrate the same thought processes that a professional in the field uses to make decisions).

 Examples include:

When will a polygon become a parallelogram?

And many other beautifully designed real life simulated statement problems that we have in our maths textbooks and the formative assessment hands on activities that we design constantly in our maths resource periods.

The skillful use of probing and follow-up questions will encourage students to try to answer the more difficult and complex questions. Lectures in which students are regularly asked to respond hold additional benefits for learning. Students have the opportunity to test their understanding of the material as it is presented, they have many chances to practice thinking critically and creatively, and their motivation to study and keep up with course assignments improves (Bligh, 2000).

Like with every new strategy that we plan and try there are some loopholes that are difficult to manage with the questioning technique as well. The method is clearly more difficult to use in larger classes which is a norm in our world. One approach that some college professors are using today (in some other part of the world) involves audience response systems or “clickers.” This technology allows the instructor to pose a question to the class and easily collect the responses. Advocates of this technological solution report that, when used in a learner-centered framework, the increased interaction through strategically posed questions can, among other things, assess prior knowledge; elicit a misperception; stimulate discussion; and exercise a cognitive skill (Beatty & Gerace, 2009; Fies & Marshall, 2008).

Another easy and effective tool that I constantly apply in my teaching is Buddy time. I love talking as a person and as a maths teacher and try to encourage my students to do so too! Talking in class! Talking Maths in class! I motivate them in different ways to be an active verbal participant in the class and to share their misconceptions, their understandings and their insights in the class. And believe me, when engaged with their heart, they produce excellent thought provoking discussions and brainstorming sessions. Questioning is the first way I encourage that. However in order to encourage the majority to be a part of the mathlingual population I devise certain ways to get them talking. One of the easiest ways to get students talking about an issue or topic in class is to use the “think/write–pair–share” method. (Lyman, 1992).  I call it the Buddy time.  In this approach, I simply pose an issue or problem to the class and then give students 30 seconds to one minute to think about or write out their response. Students then pair up and explain their responses to one another for 3 to 5 minutes. Finally, as a class, the issue or result is discussed. Because this technique takes only about 4 to 6 minutes of class time, it could be done one or two times in each class session. It does heaps and bounds towards getting the student involved in the class.

Sometimes a similar approach is needed with a larger group. In that case, I don’t pair them up but make groups of 4-6. Popularly called Buzz Groups in the educational circuit ( McKeachie (2006) ) I a ckass when I come to a concept that lends itself to discussion, I ask the students to form groups of four to six students to talk about the issue. I also try and ensure that each member of the group participates by putting a small rule that the group submits one idea per member of the concept. The idea could be a theoretical reasoning explanation, a procedural step in proving some conclusion or result or an example from real life.  After 5-10 minutes, I call on some of the groups to present their discussions and ask other groups who came to the same conclusion to raise their hands. As they present, I record their main points on the blackboard and then as a class we can discuss and brainstorm further.