Questioning is a very common Intensive Training and Practice (ITaP) topic. It was the subject of the first ITaP pilot – conducted by the National Institute of Teaching in 2022 – and is one of the most frequently accessed units by providers using Proxima.
Questioning’s popularity is extremely unsurprising. Most teachers ask hundreds of questions a day, so it appears to be a clear example of a “foundational concept” that has “high impact on classroom practice”, as government guidance on ITaP topic selection recommends.
However, learning to ask effective questions is not easy! Here are three ideas about how to help trainees ask better questions, informed by an analysis of over 5,000 questioning scenarios completed on Proxima.
1. Start with goals, not question types
As the ITTECF notes, “Questions can be used for many purposes, including to check pupils’ prior knowledge, assess understanding and break down problems.”
This versatility can create confusion for trainees, because some types of questions are more appropriate for certain goals than others. For example, a multiple-choice hinge question might be an effective tool to assess understanding, but a poor tool to extend it. Other types of questions, though, can be effectively employed in pursuit of multiple goals. For example, probing questions can be used to check understanding and to prompt pupils to think more deeply.
One way to reduce confusion is to start with goals, not question types. Within Proxima, we have divided our questioning scenario bank by three common goals of questioning, to support trainees to develop a mental model of questioning that maps issues of technique (what to ask, who to ask, how to ask) to why you are asking.
Within a single ITaP unit, some providers have also gone a step further by only focusing on one goal of questioning, e.g. to check or extend understanding, but not both.
2. Beware open and closed questions
A misconception that illustrates the pitfalls of under-emphasising goals is the idea that open questions are good and closed questions are bad, regardless of context. An example of this misconception can be seen in the scenario below:
The scenario is designed to highlight how hinge questions can be used to identify misconceptions, as well as to support a discussion about the risks of relying on volunteers when assessing groups.
Among trainees that selected Option 2, almost half justified their decision with reference to it being an open question. This suggests that for some trainees, ideas about question type – specifically that open questions are in a general sense better than closed questions – were taking precedence over a consideration of the goal being pursued.
3. Provide multiple opportunities for practice
Trainees’ responses to approximations also underline how valuable it is to provide multiple, complementary opportunities for practice, both as part of ITaP and beyond.
We analysed responses to a pair of approximations that required trainees to either select or script a question that could be used to assess the understanding of a group. As with the example above, the scenarios were designed to encourage trainees to think about alternatives to asking for volunteers.
The responses indicated that not asking for volunteers is easier in theory than in practice. Trainees avoided asking for volunteers at significantly higher rates when selecting a question than when asked to script one from scratch. Almost all trainees were able to articulate why asking for volunteers made it harder to assess the group accurately, suggesting that the main challenge was creating a habit based on this insight, not having it in the first place.
A simple and powerful way to help trainees apply new ideas successfully is to provide more opportunities for practice and feedback – in sequences and spaced out over time – recognising that more practice is beneficial, even after conceptual understanding is secure.
Proxima – Three ways to help trainees ask better questions