Skill of Questioning





Read through the situation provided and carry out the activities mentioned below:

''Richard is a young lecturer equipped with a Masters Degree in Electronics. He has to teach a class comprising of Grade Twelve students. Richard largely uses the lecture method to teach. Of course his lectures are spiced with demonstrations and activities. When he asks his students to evaluate him after a month of teaching, he finds that they have labelled him as 'uninteresting' and 'monotonous'. He reflects over his own teaching and agrees that his voice dominates most part of the lecture. 'How do I minimise this?' he wonders and surfs through the web to find something that would help him break the monotony of teaching. Well he does find some interesting stuff.. Go through the activities that Richard has gone through and you will realize the magic of qood questioning.'' 

Activities: (1) Read http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/pdfs/Skill_Question.pdf

(2) Skim through

http://question-skills.wikispaces.com/. This page has plenty of links on the left under the title 'Navigation". Do spend time going thoroughly through all the links. (I personally found this site AMAZING!)

(3)Read through http://www.ndt-ed.org/TeachingResources/ClassroomTips/Effective_Questioning.htm and http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/teachtip.htm#questions Also see http://www.exploratorium.edu/IFI/resources/workshops/artofquestioning.html

(4) Select a topic and form good questions on the topic. Try to integrate the same in an actual lesson. Some tips: Include 2-3 questions for introducing the topic. For development of the topic have questions. Have a few for evaluation after you have done the topic. Include questions for higher order thinking "What will happen if the temperature of the earth increases indiscriminately?" "what will happen if number of primary consumers increases in the food chain?" or in a language lesson "Give me a different ending for this story." In history "What would have happened if the Indians were united in the 1857 Revolt?". You may base questions on your teaching aid that you use. you can perform a small activity or experiment and base questions on the same. Rememebr, use questions to promote thinking. When you accept an answer, help to rectify partly correct answers. Motivate students to answer and praise a good response. Distribute your questions throughout the class. Give pupils time to think. Avoid accepting chorus answers.



This one is specially for those whose can't attend face to face inputs given by the faculty.Happy questioning. Happy Interaction... Goodbye Monotony!!!