Introduction
Of the many techniques of teaching, questioning is by far the one most commonly used at all grade levels. A study from the early 80s indicates that teachers ask 300 to 400 questions a day (Levin and Long, 1981). There is a lot of research on the influence of teacher questions in the classroom. Most research states questioning leads to learning gains if:
We can divide questions into closed and open-ended questions and lower and higher cognitive questions. We will explain the difference and discuss when it is useful to use a certain type of questioning. With closed questions the answers are usually limited. Learners will answer yes / no, correct / wrong or simply list, identify, name etc. what they have remembered. Closed questions are usually lower cognitive questions used to check what a learner has remembered from information taught. Examples of closed questions are: “What is the capital of Ethiopia?” or “ Lake Victoria borders three countries. Right or wrong?” or “List five types of vegetation.” Closed questions are good to use when you want to recall information from your learners. These questions are mostly memorisation based. |