The terms that we’ve been

hearing throughout this

training are

K-U-D.
“… knowledge and awareness are
an intrinsic part of each learner.
Thus, in exercising the craft of
good teaching, an educator must
reach into the learner's hidden
levels of knowing and awareness in
order to help the learner reach new
levels of thinking.”
-Socrates
 Prepared by:

JOEM C. PERINA
Tiwi Central School
 Objectives:
 To gain understanding of low and
high level types of classroom
questions
 To demonstrate questioning and
probing techniques
 To determine the features of effective
classroom questioning
In a Math lesson, how many percent
of your instructional time do you
think you spend in asking
questions? Choose from the
percentages below and explain why.
 0 - 25%
26% - 50%
51% - 75%
76% - 100%
 PRIMING ACTIVITY
Go over the unpacked competencies and prepared
lesson by your group in tabular form. Write at least 3
questions for each stage. Fill out the chart.
Questions Reasons for Skill being
Asking the developed
Question
Modelling
Guided Practice
Independent Practice
Application and Closing
What is a Question?
 Three major purposes of questions
1. Questions initiate learning by
a. arousing learner interest, and
b. making the learner focus on a given topic or
issue.
2. Questions guide learning by
a. making the learner preview or comprehend a text
using a graphic organizer.
b. making the learner focus on significant parts of a
given text prior to actual reading, and
c. redirecting student thinking.
3. Questions are used to assess learning.
TYPES OF QUESTIONS:

High-level &
Low-level
 Low Level Questions
These questions focus on previously learned
knowledge in order to answer questions posed by the
teacher which require the students to perform ONE of the
following tasks:
1.Elicit the meaning of a term.
2.Represent something by a word or a phrase.
3.Supply an example of something.
4.Make statements of issues, steps in a procedure, rules,
conclusions, ideas and beliefs that have previously been
made.
5.Supply a summary or a review that was previously said
or provided.
6.Provide a specific, predictable answer to a question.
 High Level Questions
These questions focus on previously learned knowledge in order to answer
questions posed by the teacher which require the students to perform ONE
of the following tasks:
1. Perform an abstract operation, usually of a mathematical nature, such as
multiplying, substituting, or simplifying.
2. Rate some entity as to its value, dependability, importance, or sufficiency
with a defense of the rating.
3. Find similarities or differences in the qualities of two or more entities
utilizing criteria defined by the student.
4. Make a prediction that is the result of some stated condition, state,
operation, object, or substance.
5. Make inferences to account for the occurrence of something (how or why
it occurred).
6. Comparing and contrasting
 Differences Between Low and
High Inquiry Questions
Type of Question: Low Level (convergent)
Student responses :
* Recall, memorize
* Describe in own words
* Summarize
* Classify on basis of known criteria
* Give an example of something
Type of Question: High Level (divergent)
Student responses :

* Create unique or original design, report,

inference, prediction
* Judge scientific credibility
* Give an opinion or state an attitude
* Make value judgments
 Types of Questions
Within the context of open-ended
mathematical tasks, it is useful to group
questions into four main categories (Badham).
These questions can be used be the teacher
to guide the children through investigations
while stimulating their mathematical thinking
and gathering information about their
knowledge and strategies.
1. Starter Questions
These take the form of open-ended questions
which focus the children's thinking in a general
direction and give them a starting point.
Examples:
How could you sort these.......?
How many ways can you find to ....... ?
What happens when we ......... ?
What can be made from....?
How many different ....... can be found?
2. Questions to stimulate
mathematical thinking
These questions assist children to focus on
particular strategies and help them to see
patterns and relationships. This aids the
formation of a strong conceptual network. The
questions can serve as a prompt when children
become 'stuck'. (Teachers are often tempted to
turn these questions into instructions, which is
far less likely to stimulate thinking and removes
responsibility for the investigation from the
child).
Examples:
What is the same?
What is different?
Can you group these ....... in some way?
Can you see a pattern?
How can this pattern help you find an answer?
What do think comes next? Why?
Is there a way to record what you've found that might
help us see more patterns?
What would happen if....?
3. Assessment Questions
Questions such as these ask children to explain what they are
doing or how they arrived at a solution. They allow the teacher to
see how the children are thinking, what they understand and what
level they are operating at. Obviously they are best asked after
the children have had time to make progress with the problem, to
record some findings and perhaps achieved at least one solution.
Examples:
What have you discovered?
How did you find that out?
Why do you think that?
What made you decide to do it that way?
 4. Final discussion questions
These questions draw together the efforts of the class and prompt
sharing and comparison of strategies and solutions. This is a vital
phase in the mathematical thinking processes. It provides further
opportunity for reflection and realisation of mathematical ideas and
relationships. It encourages children to evaluate their work.
Examples:
Who has the same answer/ pattern/ grouping as this?
Who has a different solution?
Are everybody's results the same?
Why/why not?
Have we found all the possibilities?
How do we know?
Have you thought of another way this could be done?
Do you think we have found the best solution?
QUESTIONING
TECHNIQUES
-is one questioning technique which can
establish positive patterns and high levels of
interaction in the classroom. This involves the
asking of a single question to which there are
several answers. It increases the frequency of
questions and student participation, which in
turn leads to increased student achievement.
- is another questioning technique which
uses hints, clues and prompts to assist
students to come up with the response
successfully.
Situation:
Teacher: What is the summer capital of the
Philippines? Pat ?
Pat: Manila, ma’am.
Teacher:
__________________________
__________________________
Prompting, therefore, is a strategy which is based on a
series of questions containing hints that help the
learner develop his/her answer.

 Prompting requires thinking on your feet. This

means that the prompt cannot be planned ahead of
time. It can only be practiced in the context of an actual
lesson. A prompting question can only be created on
the basis of the student response.
A single prompt may not be sufficient to guide the
learner to a better answer. It is necessary for the
teacher to use a series of prompts which can lead the
learner, step-by-step, to answer the original question.
-is a qualitative technique and should
be used for the promotion of reflective
thought and critical thinking. Its function
is to provide the student with a chance
to support or defend a stated stand or
position or point of view.
Classroom Scene
Teacher : Are trees important to us, Enri?
Enri : Yes, Ma’am.
Teacher : Why do you say that?
Enri : Because they prevent flooding.
Teacher : Could you explain that further?
Enri : They hold things together, so when
there is heavy rain the trees absorb the
water instead of going down to other places,
hence no flooding occurs.
Teacher : Very good, Enri! *
1. Probing for Clarification
When you want a clearer and more
concisely worded answer from your
student, you can ask probing questions:
1.1 What do you mean by that?
1.2 Could you please rephrase your
answer?
2. Probing for Support
This is when you ask the student for an
evidence to justify an answer. You can
express this in such questions as:
2.1 How did you arrive at the conclusion?
2.2 Cite an evidence that what you had said
was true.
3. Probing for Consensus
This is used when you want to determine
whether the learner agrees or disagrees with
an expressed view or not as evidenced in the
following:
3.1 Who agrees to what he has said?
3.2 Do you agree with Mia?
5. Probing for Relevance
You may want to challenge the relevance
of a student’s answer to the discussion.
You may ask this question:
5.1 How do you relate your answer to
what we have been discussing?
 4. Probing for Accuracy
This is employed when you detect an
error of fact in a student response:
You should ask the students to adjust the
answer just like asking the question
below:
4.1 You gave two options which were very clearly
stated, could you please reword your answer?
6. Probing for Examples
You can employ this technique if the
student gives a vague or broad answer.
Hence, you ask for concrete or
specific illustrations of what the answer
meant as in:

6.1 Could you give us an example of

how that rule works?
 7. Probing for Complexity
When you see the need to expand simple
student responses to arrive at more
significant ones, you can use this
technique:
7.1 Could you expand your answer?
7.2 Do you think it is as simple as that?
 Wait
Time
It refers to the amount of time
teachers spend on waiting for
students to respond.
Wait time # 1, or post question
wait time is the pause after a
teacher asks a question and before
a student gives an answer.
Wait time # 2, or post response
wait, on the other hand, is the
pause present after a student gives
an answer and prior to the teacher
reacting.
Classroom Scene # 1
Teacher : Let us discuss the selection I assigned to you
yesterday. Who wrote the poem, Lorna?
Lorna : Robert Frost
Teacher : What is Frost trying to describe in the poem,
Winnie?
Winnie : Teacher, a man on a horse watching the woods.
Teacher : Okay. What else does he notice in the woods,
Eric?
Eric : He sees snow all around him.
Teacher : Good. What thoughts go through the man’s
mind, Rose?
Rose : He thinks how beautiful… (She pauses for a
second…)
Teacher : What? (Calls on another student…) Sydney?
Sydney : He thinks how beautiful the forest is. So, he
wants to stay and watch.
Teacher : Yes, anything else, Ester? (Waits for half a
second…) Come on, Ester, I’m sure you can answer
this. (Waits half a second…) Okay, what about you, Fred?
Fred : Teacher, I think he likes to stay in the woods but
he can’t.
Teacher : Why not, Fred?
Fred : I don’t know, teacher.
Teacher : Come on, Fred, think! (waits half a second).
Okay, Arnold? (waits half second) John?
(waits half a second) What’s the matter with everyone?
Didn’t you read the poem?
 NINE TYPES OF
QUESTIONS TO AVOID
1. OVERLAID QUESTION
By elaborating on a question a teacher feels
is unclear, she may end up confusing the students
by tagging on an additional thought
Ex.
* What method shall we use to solve this problem,
and what will make our solution elegant?
* Which two triangles are congruent and also
share a common angle?
2. MULTIPLE QUESTION
This happens when two related questions in
sequence are asked without allowing for a student
response until both parts of the questions have
been asked.
Ex.
Which triangles should we prove congruent,
and how will they help us prove parallel to CD?

Better: Which triangles should we prove

congruent, Henry?
How will these congruent triangles enable
us to prove AB II CD, Evelyn?
3. FACTUAL QUESTIONS
There’s nothing wrong asking this question if
the question will help build up a series of
sequential facts necessary to the solution of
a problem. Otherwise, not much thought is
needed to respond to this question.
Ex.
What is the Pythagorean theorem?
4. ELLIPTICAL QUESTIONS
These are questions that are unclear
because the teacher has omitted specifics that
offer nothing to a lesson. Although not
particularly harmful, an elliptical question
simply an unnecessary waste of time.
Ex.
How about these two angles?
Better:
What is the relationship between these
two angles, Jill?
5. YES-NO or GUESSING QUESTIONS
A student trying to answer this question
has actually a more than 50% chance of
being correct
Ex.
Is perpendicular to ?
Better:
What is the relationship between
and , Karen?
6. CHORUS RESPONSE QUESTIONS
When a class responds in chorus to a
question, the teacher usually cannot
determine which students are answering
correctly, incorrectly, or not responding at all.
An occasional use of this type of
question may be acceptable if the response
is not too crucial to the development.
7. WHIPLASH QUESTIONS
This question is not usually planned by the
teacher. It comes out when a teacher decides
to make a question out of a statement midway
through it.
Ex.
This slope of line is, what?
Better:
What is the slope of this line, Andy?
8. LEADING QUESTIONS
A leading question is one that tugs
the desired response from the students.
This type of question serves no reasonable
function
Ex.
Seven is a factor of 35, isn’t it?
Better:
What are the factors of 35, Walter?
9. TEACHER-CENTERED QUESTIONS
It is generally desirable to have the students
consider the teacher as part of the class. Although
they are aware of the different roles of teachers
and students, it is more effective to use the first
person plural (we and us) when appropriate.
Ex.
Give me the solution set of 3x-5=2
Better:
Give us the solution set of…., Amy?
 CLASSROOM QUESTIONING
FEATURES TO DEVELOP

 DIRECT AND SIMPLE LANGUAGE

Classroom questions should be direct and simple in language.
The students’ focus should be on the content not on the language
used in its delivery

 DEFINITE AND CLEAR MEANING

If a question lends itself to various interpretations, students may
be reluctant to respond. Often, shorter questions are less
confusing.
 LOGICAL SEQUENCE
An inexperienced teacher’s impatience with the
developmental process may cause him to rush to the
pivotal (prime) question of a lesson without spending
enough time leading up to it with shorter preparatory
questions. The impatience diminishes the ultimate
effectiveness of the pivotal question.

 QUESTIONS KEYED TO CLASS ABILITY

The level of ability of a class should determine the
language and complexity of the classroom questions
used.
 QUESTIONS THAT STIMULATE EFFORT
While gearing the phrasing of a question to the
appropriate level of a class, teachers must make a
special effort to prepare questions that are sufficiently
difficult to arouse an effort yet not too difficult to stifle the
class.

 OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS
These questions allow students to reach conclusions
and make mathematical decisions consistent with their
understanding and development. This also permits
students to arrive at many possible “correct” answers.
 MAINTAINING STUDENT INTEREST
Every effort should be made to call on as many
different students throughout the lesson as possible
and to avoid predictability in calling students. Mixing
calling on non-volunteers with volunteers will make
everyone attentive.

 AVOIDING REPETITION
Generally, questions should not be repeated
except if for some unusual reason the question is
inaudible, repetition may be necessary. Habitual
repetition can make the class inattentive since they can
rely on the question being repeated
 AVOIDING REPETITION OF STUDENT
ANSWERS
The reason for this is the same as the one before.
If students can rely on the answers being repeated
by the teacher, they may eventually not even listen
to their classmates. This will greatly inhibit active
student interaction throughout the lesson.
 CALLING ON STUDENTS
Another way to generate constant
student attention is to call to a particular
student for a response after a pause at
the end of a question. Naming a student
before the question may make the others
inattentive since they know who will be
answering. This does not promote active
involvement in the learning process.
 VARIETY IN QUESTIONING
Variety refers to the types of questions
asked, to the manner in which
questions are asked, to the way
students (volunteers and non-
volunteers) are called on to respond to
questions and to the procedure by
which responses are handled. Variety
reduces predictability.
 WAIT-TIME AFTER ASKING A QUESTION
Allowing students sufficient time to think about a
teacher-posed question is a very important aspect of
classroom questioning. Research showed that
teachers who waited more than three seconds
before calling for a response enjoyed the following
results:
a. the length of student responses and variety of
responses increased
b. the number of voluntary, yet appropriate,
responses increased
c. failure to respond decreased
d. student confidence increased
 Techniques of Asking a Question

1. The Default 2. The Volunteer

Ask a question Ask a question

Pause Pause
Call on a student Wait for a raised hand

Master this Use for

technique and use it conceptually
as your standard challenging
questions
 3. Jump Ball 4. The Choir

Ask a question Ask a question

Pause Pause

“ Any body ” “ Every body “

Use for conceptually Use for simple but

challenging questions and important points that
when you need a fast everyone should know
answer
As the teacher circulated around the room
assisting and monitoring students, she
came to a student who asked if he could
draw a square instead of a rectangle. In
the dialogue which follows, the teachers’
response highlighted the definition of a
rectangle, and she encouraged the student
to work from the definition to see that a
square is indeed a rectangle.
S: Can I do a square?
T: Is a square a rectangle?
T: What’s a rectangle?
T: How do you get something to be a rectangle?
What’s the definition of a rectangle?
S: Two parallel lines
T: Two sets of parallel lines … and …
S: Four right angles.
T: So is that [square] a rectangle?
S: Yes.
T: [Pause as teacher realizes that student understands
that the square is a rectangle, but there is a
measurement error] But has that got an area of 20?
S: [Thinks] Er, no.
T: [Nods and winks]
 Other responses to this student would have
closed down the opportunity to teach him about
how definitions are used in mathematics. To the
question “Can I do a square?”, she may have
simply replied “No, I asked you to draw a
rectangle” or she might have immediately focused
on the error that led the student to ask the
question. Instead she saw the opportunity to
develop his use of definitions. When the teacher
realized that the student had asked about the
square because he had made a measurement error,
she judged that this was within the student’s own
capability to correct, and so she simply indicated
that he should check his work.
S1: That’s how you work out area -- you do the
length times the width
T: When S said that’s how you find the area of a
shape, is he completely correct?

S2: That’s what you do with a 2D shape.

T: Yes, for this kind of shape. What kind of shape
would it not actually work for?

S3: Triangles.
S4: A circle.

T: [With further questioning, teases out that LxW

only applies to rectangles]
The teacher paid further attention to
generalization and over-generalization at
this point, when a student commented:
‘That’s how you work out area – you do
the length times the width’. The teacher
seized on this opportunity to address
students’ tendency to over-generalize, and
teased out, through a short class
discussion, that LxW only works for
rectangles.
Let us go back at our listed questions.
And ask ourselves of the ff:
 Do we ask question to check what
the pupils know?
 Do we ask question to check what
the pupils understand?
 Do we ask question to check what
the pupils can do with what they
know and understand?
A QUESTION is a powerful tool.
•Questions can embarrass, rather than inquire.
•Questions can leave a student feeling exposed
and stupid, more willing to skip class than to be
humiliated again.
•It can undermine rather than build a shared spirit
of investigation.
•But it is equally possible to use questions to
promote students’ sense of themselves as
knowledgeable and skilled.
Our goal is not only to let our
pupils think but to let them
think mathematically.