How do we create a ‘culture of inquiry’

in our classroom that opens minds and provokes truly independent

thought?

Developing questioning and dialogue

What does effective questioning and dialogue look like?

• Student participation and engagement is high. Learning is taking place.

• Techniques that are more effective in engaging students are described as ‘snowball’ as the discussion moves around the room from student to student with little involvement of the teacher. There is also an expectation that all students will be participating and are active.

• The classroom climate is such that students feel safe to contribute and if they make a mistake this is seen as an opportunity to learn.

• Questioning is differentiated in order to meet the needs of learners within the class.

• Fun! We know that students show higher levels of engagement when they are enjoying activities and there a lots of strategies that develop dialogue and are good fun.

• Planned into the lesson.

Questioning and dialogue

5 min Activity: AFL: Questioning checklist

Questioning and dialogue

How many students in your class are expecting to answer a question today?

Hands up • Only one person gets to answer at a time so you have no idea what

most people are thinking.• The answer can be offered before others have had a chance to work it

out for themselves.• Students can opt out of answering or thinking altogether if they

choose to. They can hide.• It is difficult to express confusion or simply to say that you don’t

know the answer.• In the ‘forest of hands’ scenario, the competitiveness inhibits less

confident students (and there are gender-specific behaviours here that can’t be ignored).

• In the ‘blood out of a stone’ scenario, you can’t tell if students are really stuck or just too unsure of themselves to offer a public answer.

• Very often ‘Hands up’ goes together with closed questions with very short think time. We are not comfortable with silence –and expect responses within seconds of asking a question.

• Ingrained patterns of behaviour develop; students who always put a hand up and students who never do.

Active questioning techniques

• Plan questioning into lessons• MWB to get feedback from all students• No hands up strategies (Think, pair & share)• Dialogue• If this is the answer, what is the question?• Snow balling techniques (PPPB)• Deliberate use of thinking time

Impact: Journey to deeper thinking

Think, Pair and Share

Think, Pair and Share• Creating a small bubble of security around each pair; a safe space where

they can think for a while and say whatever they like. • In this bubble it is safe to admit you don’t understand and the pair can

pluck up the courage together to report this back. • Every single student can engage in answering the question; they are all

generating answers simultaneously – and there is less chance of hiding. • Two heads are better than one. If the question is a good one, pairs can

debate their answer. They can then rehearse it and feedback to each other…’yes, that sounds good but maybe also say this….’

• When the teacher brings the class together to hear answers, the students are repeating something they have rehearsed.

• It is crucial in the report-back phase to ask selected pairs directly to share their discussion; it means everyone needs to be prepared to report back in case they are asked.

• Using a building process is also key here – anything to add, to challenge, any better or different answers? And so on. (It is not always time-efficient to get each pair to share their answer.)

Developing questioning and dialogue

5 min Activity: • How can we plan for questioning and dialogue?• Devise a series of questions to start dialogue.

Mini W

hite Boards

Probing questions• That’s interesting, what makes you say that?• That’s true, but why do you think that is?• Is there a different way to say the same thing?• Can you give an example of where that happens?• Can you explain how you worked that out?• So what happens if we made it bigger or smaller?• Really? Are you sure? Is there another explanation?• Which of those things makes the biggest impact?• What is the theme that links all those ideas together?• What is the evidence that supports that suggestion?• Does anyone agree with that? Why?• Does anyone disagree? What would you say instead? Why is that different?• How does that answer compare to that answer?• But what’s the reason for that? And how is that connected to the first part?• How did you know that? What made you think of that? Where did that idea

come from?• Is that always true or just in this example?• What would be the opposite of that?• Is that a direct cause of the effect or is it just a coincidence, a correlation?• Not sure if that’s quite right… have another go… is that what you meant?

If this is the answer, what is the question?

•3.14159265359•Religion•Alcohol and CO2

•Findus

Pose, Pause, Pounce, Bounce

Active questioning techniques and dialogue

Impact: A journey to deeper learning

Creating a ‘culture of inquiry’ in our classroom that opens minds and provokes truly independent thought.