#  >> K-12 >> K-12 For Educators

How to Develop Effective Questioning Techniques for Students

Students need to have good questioning skills so they understand what they need to learn as their education progresses. Effective questioning shows a curiosity and an eagerness to learn that is useful in both educational and business endeavors. Effective questioning is a skill that is needs to be taught and encouraged since it is not inherent. While children are naturally curious, the actual ability to ask effective questions requires encouragement and instruction from their parents and educators.

Instructions

    • 1

      Explain the difference between open and closed questions. A closed question has a limited number of possible answers. For example, a "yes or no" question is a closed question. An open question can have any number of possible answers. A question starting with "why" is almost always an open-ended question.

    • 2

      Practice open and closed questions by having the students ask their own versions to verify they understand the difference between the two.

    • 3

      Give examples of focusing questions, which is when you start with general questions and then narrow the questioning down to get more and more detail about a subject.

    • 4

      Ask a student to tell a true story in three or four sentences. Then have students ask focusing questions. For example, if a student tells a story about a camping trip, focusing questions could find out how many people were there, the ages of those people and then the specific names of the people under the age of 18.

    • 5

      Read the opening paragraph out of newspaper stories and then have the students ask questions about the articles. Provide answers based off those questions if that information is available in the story. If it isn't, discuss why that information may not be in the story.

    • 6

      Review the importance of "who, what, when, where, why and how" in regards to news stories and subjects in general. Students should be asking those questions on subjects when the information isn't given to them.

Learnify Hub © www.0685.com All Rights Reserved