Key Resource: Using questioning to Promote Thinking

Good questioning is an important skill for you, the teacher, to acquire. Questioning can be used to find out what your pupils know and assess their progress, but can also be used to inspire them, help extend their thinking skills and develop enquiring minds. Questions you can ask can be divided into two broad categories: Lower level questions, which involve the recall of facts and knowledge previously taught, often involving closed questions (a yes or no answer). Higher-level questions, which ask the pupil to use bits of information previously learned to form an answer or to support an answer in a logical manner. Higher-level questions are often more open-ended. There are two issues with both higher and lower-level questions. These are encouraging pupils to respond; improving the quality of their responses.