Question Skills

UNIT 9 QUESTION SKILLS

Structure
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Objectives
9.3 Types of Classroom Questions
9.4 Framing Classroom Questions
9.5 Asking Questions in the Classroom
9.5.1 Delivery Component
9.5.2 Distributing Questions in the Classroom
9.6 Dealing with Students’ Responses
9.7 Let Us Sum Up
9.8 Unit-end Exercises
9.9 Suggested Readings

9.1 INTRODUCTION
Questions are an aid in the learning process and hence questioning skill is one of the
important teaching skills required to be developed to conduct a classroom session
successfully by a teacher. A teacher’s question could be for Compliance in which the
student is expected to comply, e.g., have you done your home assignments? His/her question
can be Rhetorical in which the student is not supposed to reply, as the teacher answers his/
her own question. The Recall question aims at the answer which the student reproduces
from his memory. These types of questions are generally asked by an autocratic teacher.
Hence, such type of questions are not encouraged by teachers who are democratic, co-
operating and friendly towards their students. It is desirable to raise questions which
would involve higher cognitive abilities like comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis
and evaluation. You may have experienced during your teaching career that teachers
generally are not clear about the type of questions which they should ask at various stages
of class lecture. How to frame good questions? What type of questions should be asked
while introducing the concept, explaining the concept, and evaluating the learning outcome
of the students relating to concept? How to deal with the variety of responses from the
students? In this unit, you will be able to understand all the issues pertaining to ‘questioning’
as an important skill of teaching.

9.2 OBJECTIVES
After reading this unit, you would be able to:
l explain the use of the skill of questioning for a variety of purposes;
l discuss the type of classroom questions;
l frame simple questions for classroom use;
l develop questioning skills; and
l deal effectively with the students responses.

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Teaching Skills
9.3 TYPES OF CLASSROOM QUESTIONS
Skill in asking and directing questions to students is one of the important skills about
which a teacher needs good orientation so that he can acquire this skill effectively. In a
class where the teacher dominates the class mainly by using direct influence uses three
types of questions, such as:
i) Compliance: Here the student is to comply with a question of the commanding and
requesting nature like “would you please turn to page 30 of your text book?”
ii) Rhetorical: The teacher puts the question to the student, but does not pause for an
answer. The teacher himself answers it.
iii) Recall: The teacher asks questions which students answer from their memory.

Fig. 9.1: Categories of the Higher Order Cognitive Questions

(Source: Kulkarni, S.S. (1986) Introduction to Educational Technology, Bombay: Oxford and
IBH Publishing Co., P. 351.)
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A teacher should not confine himself only to these types of questions. He should raise Question Skills
questions which involve higher mental processes like comprehension, application, analysis,
synthesis and evaluation also. Higher order cognitive questioning can be classified into
three broad categories: namely, (i) Reasoning questions; (ii) or Creating questions;
(iii) Valuing questions, so as to help the students to: a) Reason b) Create, and c) Value.
The Figure 9.1 illustrates higher order cognitive questions.

i) Reasoning Questions

Illustrations
1. Why instructional objectives should be stated in behavioural terms?
2. Why do you think the competencies a teacher requires should be described in
behavioural terms?
Reasoning questions can follow the following pattern:
1. How do you differentiate between .............. and ............. ?
2. What are the causes ........... ?
3. What information do we need to prove ............... ?
4. Why do you believe that if ..................... ?
Reasoning questions are helpful in explaining a concept. Explanation involves: (i) The
‘what’ (the interpretative); (ii) The ‘How’ (the descriptive); and (iii) The ‘Why’ (the
reason-giving). The teacher may have to decide which type/pattern of questions (what,
how or why) should be first in sequence.

ii) Creating Questions

Illustrations
1. What type of instructional strategies will you develop to realise the instructional
objectives that you have set out to achieve in your course?
2. How do you plan to utilize the existing community resources to provide outdoor
learning experience to your students?
Creating questions can take the following pattern:
L What will happen if .................. ?
2. Write a story to ......................
3. Play the role of ......................
4. What will be your strategy ................. for achieving ................?

iii) Value Questions

Illustrations
1. What experiences in your life make you feel proud?
2. Evaluate the performance of teacher from the students’ reactions.
Some of the patterns common to valuing questions are:
I. Do you agree ................?
2. What is your opinion about ...............?
3. What steps would you have taken ........... if ...........?

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Teaching Skills It is also desirable for a teacher to group the question into “fact” questions and “thought”
questions. Fact questions are those questions which can be answered from memory or by
referring to a book or notes or by just getting the information/copying from another student.
“Thought” questions would involve higher mental/cognitive process.

9.4 FRAMING CLASSROOM QUESTIONS

Given below are a few guidelines for framing classroom questions. You need to go through
them very carefully.
l In classroom teaching, very short answer questions (one sentence answer) or short
answer (two three sentences) should be asked. These questions give the child an
opportunity to express his ideas.
l Whenever multiple choice questions have to be asked, these should be written on the
blackboard or on the other roller board.
l Essay type questions should be avoided during the classroom transaction.
l Questions which require ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ response should be rarely asked. These
questions have high scope for guessing. The correct responses on the part of a student
does not manifest as to whether the response was really known to him/her or it was
a sheer guess. Secondly, such questions hardly stimulate thinking.
l Teachers should ask questions which are related to the content being taught in the
class. The questions not related to the content hardly serve any purpose. Rather, they
break the continuity of the lesson and distract the student’s attention and impede the
process of learning the content.
l As an ilIustration, given below is a teaching episode. In this episode, teacher wants
to teach what is a “noun”. Identify the sentences which are irrelevant:
Teacher : What is a noun?
Student : Noun is the name of a person, place or a thing.
Teacher : Writes on the blackboard. Allahabad is a sacred city; and puts the
question, ‘Which is the noun in this sentence?’
Student : Allahabad.
Teacher : Do you know what is a sacred place?
Student : No
You know that the instructional objective of the teacher in the said teaching episode was to
teach the ‘noun’. She asks them to recall its definition and recognize the noun in a given
sentence. The third question “Do you know what is sacred place?”, is not a relevant
question. Therefore, questions, which drift from the main theme of the lesson, need to be
avoided.
If the questions structured by a teacher is not grammatically correct, it creates confusion
in the minds of students. They take more time to understand and respond. In some cases,
they may even fail to respond. Moreover, the teacher’s fluency of questioning is reduced.
Grammatically incorrect questions also fail to communicate their intent.
Some errors which have been observed while framing classroom questions include: .
a) Not using appropriate interrogatives at the beginning of questions;
b) Use of inappropriate tense; and
c) Use of double negatives in a single question.

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Given below are a few appropriately and inappropriately structured questions. Question Skills

Inappropriately structured Appropriately structured

Where is Ashoka born? Where was Ashoka born?

Is it not true that there is no Is it true that there is no oxygen in the

atmosphere beyond a certain atmosphere beyond a certain height?
height?

It is evident from the above example, that inappropriately structured questions mar the
quality and effectiveness of classroom questions. Secondly, inappropriately structured
questions with double negatives render the questions confusing for students.
Clarity refers to the understandability of language of a question. The components of
relevance and grammatical correctness also contribute to the clarity of the questions.
Besides, there is one more source of threat to the clarity of questions. The use of vocabulary
beyond the understanding and experience of students impede their understanding of
questions. Consider the following examples:

Inappropriately structured Appropriately structured

What problems accompany the
migration based urbanisation?
What causes the Indian war of
independence 1857?
What is the flora and fauna of
temperate zone?
What problems arise when a large
number of people move to cities?
What were the causes leading to the
Indian war of independence of l857?
What are the important plants and
animals of temperate zone?

You would notice that the use of flora and fauna might make the language of the third
question beyond the vocabulary of say III class students. Students therefore, may fail to
respond to the question. Other questions also lack clarity and therefore may fail to elicit
the response from students. Teachers should avoid framing very lengthy questions. Too
lengthy a questions fails to get registered in the mind of students. The length of a question
therefore, needs to be appropriate to the purpose and level of students. Students’ grade
level and their maturity needs to be taken into consideration while framing questions. As
far as possible, the question should not contain words more than what is absolutely essential.
Given below are two inappropriately structured questions, which lack precision.
Appropriately structured questions in this regard are also presented:

Inappropriately structured Appropriately structured

Will anyone of the back benchers tell When did India get freedom?
me as to when did India get freedom?
Can you tell me what is the name of Who is the president of India?
the president of India who is the
highest authority in the country?

Classroom questions generate certain mental processes in students and vary in the kind
and complexity of thinking required for answering them. Based on the thinking processes
required, the classroom questions have been classified into three different levels of
categories: lower order questions, middle order questions and higher order questions. The
lower order questions stimulate recall and recognition; the middle order questions stimulate
translation, interpretation and application; and the higher order question stimulates analysis,
synthesis and evaluation process in students.
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Teaching Skills
Check Your Progress
Notes: a) Write your answer in the space given below.
b) Compare your answer with the one given at the end of this Unit.
1. List the six types of questions.
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9.5 ASKING QUESTIONS IN THE CLASSROOM

Structuring of questions is a conscious process going on in the mind of the teachers
continuously in the classroom: He structures various questions in relation to the instructional
objectives of the lesson and the learning task at hand. Ultimately these questions are
communicated to the students to elicit answers from them. This process of communicating
the question verbally to the students in the classroom is termed as the ‘delivery process’.
Once a teacher has put a question to the class, the next step in the sequence refers to
identifying a student who would respond to that question. This stage is known as
‘distribution stage’ in classroom questioning behaviour sequence. Delivery and distribution
are thus important aspects of classroom questioning behaviour.

9.5.1 Delivery Component

A teacher’s questioning in the classroom is primarily a verbal communication to stimulate
students’ thinking. In a normal classroom, a teacher talks to approximately 30-35 students.
The effectiveness of his talk in general and questioning in particular depends on the delivery
process which includes the speed with which a question is put, the voice its pitch and
tone, and pause to allow the students to think. Let us now discuss these components
relating to the delivery process of classroom questions.
Speed: The speed of the delivery of a question refers to the time taken in speaking it out
to the students. Our observations have shown that usually teachers take a few seconds to
deliver a question. Moreover, it is also found that in most of the cases the speed remains
uninfluenced with the function and level of a particular question. Indeed, high speed in
asking questions is sometimes wrongly estimated by teachers. Considering the level of
aural and oral development of students, it could be rightly justified that the speed of
delivering questions in the classroom should always be in accordance with the students’
comprehensibility. Besides, the speed of delivering a question should also be adjusted
according to the level of thinking required to answer it. The lower order questions requiring
memory functions of students could be asked relatively faster in comparison to higher
order questions, which requires complex mental operations. Putting higher-order questions
at a quicker pace is likely to go incomprehended in the classroom. Consequently, the
students may not be able to respond to them. Thus the level and function of classroom
question determine the speed of their delivery. Questions intended for drill and practice
could be asked relatively faster than questions to perform other functions. In conclusion,
it may be emphasized here that speed of the delivery of a question should be in accordance
to the students’ cognitive development, the level of thinking required to answer it, and the
function it is required to perform.
Voice: In the perspective of questioning in the classroom, voice refers to its audibility and
modulation is such a manner that each and every student in the classroom listens accurately
what the question is, what it requires and through what level of thinking it could be
22 answered. The question should be spoken in such a voice that all students including those
sitting in last rows of the classroom can hear it. Only then we can expect to harness the Question Skills
students’ capacities to develop the lesson and to impart new knowledge. Besides the
audibility of the question, its modulation orientation is also important. Intonation of specific
words or pharases of a question emphasise the specific objects that are to answer a question.
Improperly modulated or intonated questions remain unsuccessful in creating an appropriate
learning mental set in the students. Such questions tend to be perceived by the students as
statements put questions, which results in a failure to secure the desired attention from the
students. The above discussion leads to the conclusion that teachers should pay adequate
attention to their voice, its pitch, modulation and intonation.
Pause: It refers to the small periods of silence observed by the teacher just after delivering
a question. These periods of silence are very important in determining the kind and level
of thinking stimulated in students. They provide the time to the students to think and
formulate an appropriate answer. A long pause communicates the teacher’s intent to elicit
well considered relatively lengthier answer from the students. On the contrary, a short
pause indicates the teacher’s expectations of immediate answers from the memory of the
students. It has been found that usually teachers in the classroom neglect the importance
of a pause to stimulate thinking in students and observe either a too short or too lengthy
pause, for a question irrespective of its level and function. It should be kept in mind that
periods of pause should be in accordance with the level and function of the question.
Thus, a shorter pause for lower order questions is suitable. While relatively lengthier
pause is appropriate for higher order questions requiring higher mental thinking from
students. Drill questions require shorter periods of pause than questions for other functions.
It is very common for teachers to ask questions in the classroom: These questions serve
many purposes. One of them is to test students’ knowledge at different stages of teaching.
Questions are also put to arouse their curiosity and to prepare them for the learning task.
In classroom teaching questions are used by the teacher to find out whether students have
understood what was taught.
But its effectiveness depends on the competence of the teacher who uses it. One must
acquire this skill for its effective use in his/her classroom instruction.
Questions are also classified broadly into two categories. Questions in the first category
are those which ‘test’ knowledge. The latter may be labelled as ‘divergent’ questions. The
questions in the former category are labelled as ‘convergent’ questions as they have a
particular correct response. The following questions fall in the first category.
- When was Mahatma Gandhi born?
- When was Indian Constitution formed?
- When did India achieve Independence?
You know that there is one correct response for each of these questions. Students’ responses
to these questions will either be correct or incorrect.
The question in the second category does not have any one correct response. A number of
responses to such a question can be correct. For instance, there is no single correct response
to any of the following questions.
- What would happen if man starts living on the moon?
- What would happen if India is not able to achieve “Education for All by 2000 A.D.”?
As mentioned earlier, there can be many different responses to either of the above questions,
which cannot be classified as either right or wrong. On the other hand, questions in this
category stimulate thinking on the part of students and generate new ideas.
In the classroom, questions belonging to the first category are mostly asked. Questions
falling under the second category are rarely asked. As a result we do not provide adequate
experiences to our students to stimulate their thinking.
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Teaching Skills 9.5.2 Distributing Questions in the Classroom
The following guidelines as suggested by Kulkarni (1986), may be followed by teachers
while distributing questions in the classroom.

1. Clear and Coherent

The questions should be clear and coherent. The clarity of the question is less when the
teacher does not plan to ask that question. He becomes hesitant and indecisive. Sometimes
the vague and poor knowledge of the teacher about the subject leads to questions which
are not clear.

2. Frequency and Sequencing of Questions

The number of questions asked by the teacher in one classroom session should be moderate.
Too many questions will transform a teaching session into a quiz session. If the number of
questions asked by the teacher is small, it will make students passive and inattentive.

3. Pausing and Non-verbal Cues in Questions

Some teachers ask a question and without waiting for an answer the students themselves
give the answer, or proceed further. This makes the situation a rhetorical one and the
students also feel it is an activity of the teacher in which they need not participate. Hence,
it is desirable to provide an appropriate pause for students to think and formulate their
answers. The teacher should also resphrase the question if it is not understood by the
students. Some verbal or non-verbal clues should also be provided by the teacher to help
the students to arrive at the correct answers. This sustains the interest of students.

4. Directing Questions
The teacher while asking questions should provide the opportunity to answer to the majority
of the students. The distribution of questions should be uniform. and random. If a teacher
asks questions only to those who are eager, he may end up with a situation where he is
talking to only a few students in the classroom, completely ignoring the slow learners. If
he deliberately puts questions to those who cannot answer, the teacher may end up in a.
situation where most students get a feeling that the teacher trying to expose their ignorance
in the classroom. Hence, questions should be asked to facilitate the learning process, not
as punishing/threatening tool.
The distribution of classroom questions can be considered along three lines, namely
distribution in terms of classroom space, distribution among volunteers and non-volunteers,
and redirecting the same question to other students for increasing student participation.
Proper distribution of questions helps in securing and maintaining students’ attention,
enlists their active involvement in the teaching-learning process and also in sustaining
their interest in the learning task.
Distribution in space: It has been observed that the teachers tend to ask questions mostly
from the students seated in front rows. Besides this, there is also a variation in the frequency
of questions put to the students on the left or right side of the classroom. Thus, in most of
the classroom the back benchers are neglected. These students slowly become passive
towards the teacher’s questions. They fail to answer, even if an occasional opportunity is
provided to them: The lack of active participation in classroom teaching-learning creates
a feeling of indifference among students in the classroom transactions. This leads them to
poor attention and consequent low achievement. An effective approach in this regard may
be to distribute questions fairly in different parts of the classroom. This will help the
teacher to secure active cooperation of all the students to develop his lesson and make it
interesting.
Distribution among volunteers and non-volunteers (direct): Whenever a question is
asked by a teacher, some students raise their hands, while others do not. Besides, some
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students show, verbally or non-verbally, their eagerness to answer the question and others Question Skills
show their reluctance towards it. The former category of students is termed as volunteer
and latter as non-volunteer. The teacher should also give special consideration to non-
volunteer students while asking the question. Non-volunteers, as a group, lack initiative,
remain aloof and disinterested in the classroom transactions. They may rather create
discipline problems. All this leads to poor achievement. In order to involve the whole class
in the teaching-learning process and making teaching effective, the teacher should put
questions to volunteers as well as non-volunteer.
Distribution among volunteers and non-volunteers (redirection): There is one more
procedure available to distribute questions in the classroom. Suppose, you have asked a
question in the classroom and after an appropriate pause, you designate student “A’ to
respond. The movement you designate student “A” other students class become passive
listeners. To check this tendency among the students and sometimes to improve or judge
the answer given by “A”, you may repeat your question to some more students. This is
what we call ‘redirection’ and is a useful strategy to secure and maintain student’s attention
in the classroom. Redirection of the questions among the space and among volunteers and
non-volunteers is also an effective way to secure student’s active participation in the
teachingl-learning activities.

5. Prompting and Probing Questions

To facilitate the learning process, the teacher should provide prompts,cues etc. to students
so that they come up with right answers. The prompts can be thematic, sequential or
pictorial. The questions asked by the teacher will help the students to remember, think,
create, compare or evaluate if the teacher asks a series of supplementary questions. This
skill of asking questions is ‘probing’. It is a process which helps a student to ‘deliver’.

Check Your Progress

Notes: a) Write your answer in the space given below.
h) Compare your answer with the one given at the end of this unit.
2. List the guidelines which should be followed by the teacher while delivering and
distributing questions in the classroom.
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9.6 DEALING WITH STUDENTS’ RESPONSES

When a teacher asks a question there are a number of possible student response situations
from the students. These are:
- No response
- Wrong response
- Partially correct response
- Incomplete response
- Correct response.
The teacher should try to elicit the correct response from all these response situations.
This may require his/her to do some prompting or seek further information by probing or
sometimes refocussing on the concept. The teacher may also sometimes use “how” and
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Teaching Skills “why” about a concept to find out the students understanding of the concept (increasing
awareness). Let us discuss these aspects.
1. Prompting: As already discussed, ‘prompt’ stands for a hint or clue, which helps a
student to arrive at the correct response. This skill is used to deal with response
situations such as ‘response’ or ‘wrong response’. In these situations the teacher
does not provide answer to the question put to the class, but guides the student
through suitable hints to arrive at the desired response.
Sometimes no response or wrong response situation may occur due to poor framing
of question on the part of the teacher rather than the students’ inability to answer.
Whenever the teacher is in doubt about the clarity of the question s/he should repharase
the question before providing a hint to the student. Prompting influences students in
a number of ways. Firstly, it promotes their learning to a great extent. Secondly,
students experience a sense of emotional security. Thirdly, prompting stimulates
students’ thinking as they are made to think for the correct response. Fourthly,
prompting enhances self-esteem as they themselves arrive at the correct response.
Lastly, prompting enlists student’s participation in the teaching-learning process.
Given below is an illustration on the use of prompting.
Teacher : How will the climate be affected if the sun disappears from the
solar system?
Student : No response.
Teacher : Has it anything to do with the day and night? (prompt)
Student : There will be no day.
Teacher : Very good. How will the temperature be affected?
Student : The temperature on the earth will decrease. This will lead to heavy
snowfall........... and ...........
2. Seeking further information: This technique is to be used when the students initial
response is either incomplete or partially correct i.e. to deal with incomplete response
situation and partially correct response situation. Seeking further information consists
of eliciting additional information from the student to bring the initial response to
expected response level. For example, ‘What else’ type of question seeks further
information from students.
When a teacher feels that the student’s response to his/her question is as a result of
guessing, s/he should ask the student to give reasons for his/her answer or state the
answer differently. In such a situation if the student’s answer is based upon guessing,
s/he will not be able to give the reasons for or restate the answer in his/her words.
Consider the following illustration: .
Teacher : What are the various natural sources of water?
Student : Rain and rivers.
Teacher : Is there any other source of water? (seeking further information)
Student II : Yes sea, lakes, springs.
3. Refocusing: This component is used to deal with correct response situation. When a
student response to the teacher questions happens to be completely correct, the teacher
should use this component. In such situations, normally there is no need to put any
more questions.
But sometimes a skilful teacher wants to strengthen the response given by the student.
For this, he refocusses the student’s response and wants the student to relate it with
something already learnt in the class or requires the student to consider the implications
of the given response in more complex and novel situation. Besides, questions requiring
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 the student to identify the similarities or dissimilarities of the given responses with Question Skills
the related facts or issues not only strengthen the given response but also stimulate
the thinking on the part of the student. Given below is a situation, which illustrates
the use of refocussing component of the skill.
Teacher : Do gases dissolve in water?
Student : Yes, gases dissolve in water.
Teacher : Can you name any gas that dissolves in water?
Student : When we open a bottle of aerated water (soda water), gas dissolved
in the water comes out immediately in the form of bubbles.
4. Increasing Awareness: This component is also used to deal with correct response
situation. After the student has given the correct response i.e. ‘the criterion response’,
this component can be used to increase critical awareness in the student. This invol-
ves asking ‘why’ and ‘how’ of the correct response. By asking why and how of the
correct response the teacher asks from the responding student the justification/rational
for his correct response. Thus asking ‘why’ and ‘how’ of a completely correct response
increases their critical awareness. Given below is a teaching episode, which illustrates
the use of this component for increasing awareness among students.
Teacher : A person wants to get down from a boat and jumps suddenly. In
which direction will the boat move while the person moves forward?
Student : The boat will move in the backward direction.
Teacher : Why will the boat move backward when the person jumps out of it?
(increasing critical awareness.)
Student : While jumping the feet of the person exerts a force on the boat. At
the same time a force is exerted by the boat on the feet of the boy,
which makes him move forward and the boat moves backward.

Chcck Your Progrcss

Notes: a) Write your answer in the space given below.
b) Compare your answer with the one given at the end of this Unit.
3. List the role of i) Pausing and Non-verbal cues in questioning; ii) Prompting and
Probing questions.
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9.7 LET US SUM UP

Questioning is one of the important skills that a teacher ought to acquire. A student where
the tcacher dominates the class mainly by using direct influence uses three types of questions,
viz., compliance, rhetorical and recall. In compliance type of questions, the student is to
comply with a question of the commanding and requesting nature. In rhetorical questions,
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Teaching Skills the teacher puts the question to the student, but does not pause for an answer. He himself
answers it. The teacher asks the question which the students answer from their memory in
‘recall’ type of question. A teacher should go beyond these types of questions and raise
questions which involve higher cognitive abilities like comprehension, application, analysis,
synthesis and evaluation. Reasoning questions, creating questions, and valuing questions
are three broad categories of higher order cognitive questions. The questions framed by
the teacher should be appropriately structured. The questions asked in the classroom
should be clear, coherent and probing. Their number should neither be too small nor too
large. The teacher while asking questions should provide opportunity to the majority of
students to answer the questions. To facilitate the learning process, it is desirable for the
teacher to provide prompts cues to the students. The prompts may be thematic, sequential
or pictorial. Prompting, refocussing and seeking further information with the help of
supplementary questions facilitate learning effectively and meaningfully.

9.8 UNIT-END EXERCISES

I. Choose a particular topic, from your discipline to teach. Organise the content matter
and frame various types of questions which you would like to ask while teaching the
unit.
2. Mention the type of questions that should be avoided in the classroom situations.
3. What do you mean by “prompting”? Illustrate the concept with the help of examples.

9.9 SUGGESTED READINGS

Brown, George (1976) : Lecturing and Explaining, London: Methuen.
Ebel, R.L., (1965): Measuring Educational Attaimnent, N.J.: Prentice Hall.
Jangira, N.K. (1963): Technology of Classroom Questioning, New Delhi: National.
Publishing House.
Kulkarni, S.S., (1986): Introduction to Educational Technology, New Delhi: Oxford &
IBH Publishing Co.
Lowman, Joseph (1984): Mastering the Techniques of Teaching, San Francisco: Jossey
Bass Inc.

ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

1. Compliance, Rhetorical, Recall, Reasoning, Creating and Valuing questions.
2. a) Questions framed and asked should be coherent and clear;
b) The number of questions asked be moderate (neither too large nor too small);
c) There should be proper pausing and provision of non-verbal cues during
questioning;
d) To facilitate the learning process, the teacher should use prompting and probing
questions; and
e) Ensure proper distribution of questions among slow learners, back benchers,
shy students, volunteers and non-volunteers.
3. a) Pausing and non-verbal cues in questioning are helpful to students to think and
to formulate their answers. These create a feeling among the students that the
teacher is genuinely interested in getting an answer from them, and that he is
willing to help them if they commit mistakes in answering questions.
b) Prompting and probing questions facilitate the learning process. These types of
questions enable students to remember, think, create, compare and evaluate.
Prompting and probing help a student to ‘deliver’ the answers properly.
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