??? Effective questioning brings insight, which fuels curiosity, which cultivates wisdom ???

Questioning underpins all classroom assessment methods

As a Primary Teacher, questioning enables me to check little learners' understanding. It also benefits learners as it encourages engagement and focuses their thinking on key concepts and ideas. Questioning is one of the most important dimensions of teaching and learning. It gives me the chance to find out what students know and understand, and it allows students to seek clarification and help.

There are many types of effective questioning strategies and question types. Question types is in terms of lower vs. higher order questions. Lower order questions are usually "what" questions. They typically test the knowledge students have about definitions or meanings. Higher order questions tend to be "why" and "how" questions which encourage students to think more deeply about a concept or the reasons for an answer. My teaching practice include both types of questions, with an emphasis on higher order questions which challenge my students and make them think.

I have learnt fun and effective questioning strategies in my last CICT session which I want to implement like;

Basketball questioning – to engage students, develop connected thinking and development of ideas.


Phone a friend - to encourage whole class listening, participation and builds self-esteem in children, especially shy learners.

Mantle of the expert – a child gets an opportunity to answer the questions from the class and share detailed knowledge.

Pose, Pause, Pounce & Bounce – I would like to try this strategy for structuring questioning in the classroom, to ensure thinking time, selection of students to answer and collaborative sharing of ideas and response in my lessons.

Pose – A question is posed as a big question for all to consider and form a response to.
Pause – Thinking time is given and possibly discussions/thinking together.
Pounce – A child is selected who will answer.
Bounce – Teacher ‘bounces’ the answers from student to student developing the ideas/encouraging all to add their views or extend the e.g. depth and breadth of answers.

However I tried few of the effective questioning strategies in my lessons which resulted in engaging my students actively in the class. They were encouraged and even the shy learners came up with the answers.

Hot seating – A child was placed in the hot seat and answered several questions from the class.
This encouraged listening and provided challenge in my lesson.


Eavesdropping – During the group discussion I walked around the class listening to the discussion of different groups and targeted specific questions to individuals as per their ability.

5Ws and 1H – I have used this strategy many times in my lesson to create self-reflective approach to learning in my class. Who, What, Where, When, Why and How; these questions covers up from the lower order questioning to higher order questioning in my lesson catering to the needs of each ability group. This encourages my students to extend into reasoning and hypothesis. This is quite an effective questioning strategy in my experience.

My CICT experiences so far…

Before stepping in to CICT, I was very apprehensive however I went with the flow and thought… Let’s give it a try! As the CICT sessions are going on, my curiosity to learn more and more is accelerating. For instance, let me share my experience with active learning.

Active Teaching—Active Learning

"Active learning" is a phrase tossed around a great deal today. It suggests an approach to classroom instruction in which students are engaged in learning through talking, writing, reading, reflecting, or questioning – in other words, through being active. Even the research has shown that youth learn best by doing.

Active learning improves students' understanding and retention of information and can be very effective in developing higher order cognitive skills such as problem solving and critical thinking. The teacher becomes a facilitator of learning rather than a giver of knowledge.

Active learning is a student-centred approach

I learned many new techniques of active learning in the CICT sessions and even tried a few in my class. Once I started using these active learning strategies, students were engaged actively in the active learning environment. They were also learning at a much deeper level.

For example, during my literacy lesson, students were in a circle having a group discussion about Palm Tree. As the students continued the discussion, I got up and went over to the board and drew the mind map of their discussion which gave a clear understanding of the topic to the children. All the children, even the shy-learners were so intense and involved in the discussion. I viewed this as a positive aspect, the discussion had everyone in the circle contributing, sharing the information and learning collaboratively. I see active learning as a win/win. Typically it is much easier to plan your lessons, the students are more engaged, and the students remember more from the activity.

Then I tried to go for the next active learning technique “Roundtable”. I made four groups in the class and posed a question to each group as per their ability. Each child wrote an answer in a sheet of paper and passed around the group. Children were so thrilled and actively participated in this group activity. By the end each group shared their answers with the entire class.

Next I tried “Corners”, this transformed my class to an active learning island with little active scientists. They moved around in groups to the different corners of the class with their markers discussing and answering each posed question.

This is the type of classroom we all dream about and it can happen when you use active learning.

Evaluating to be the best teacher...

Evaluating teachers’ own teaching is a way to identify the strong aspects of their practice, as well as their areas of improvement. It is important to understand that evaluating our teaching does not mean we are a bad teacher, in fact, it means quite the opposite.

A good teacher teaches and learns

You could be the best teacher with the best lesson resources, lesson activities, etc. But as time changes, we need to be flexible and adaptable.

Ways to evaluate teaching practices

• Self-monitoring: Teachers monitor their own performance as they teach. After the lesson, teachers should think on whether they have met the learning outcomes and objectives, and evaluate the good and the to-be-improved aspects of the lesson. Self-monitoring is a meaningful source of information for evaluating teaching. 
• Audio and video recording: Teachers can audio- or video-tape the lessons, which will allow them to investigate their actual teaching performance in detail. Audio and video recording provide teachers with objective information that reflects what was actually happening in the class. It is always easy for people to observe others and notice their weaknesses, but it is rather difficult for them to monitor themselves, especially during teaching when teachers are devoting most of their attention in instructing and explaining to students.
• Learners' feedback on teaching: Students feedback is very useful to evaluate own teaching practice. After all, the goal of education is to make students learn and understand. Therefore, what students perceive and experience in class would directly determine how effective they are learning. 
• Questionnaires: It can be used to collect feedback from students simultaneously, which will provide a comprehensive picture that reflect the opinions of the whole class. 
• Peer-observation: Teachers can have peer observation, to observe and get feedback of their teaching. This would also give opportunity to teachers to share their ideas and best teaching practices.

Feedback is vital in just about all learning contexts

Feedback is one of the most powerful influences on learning and achievement.

Having methodical learners’ feedback provides us with evidence of teaching effectiveness and helps us to determine where improvements might be made. Simultaneously, teachers’ feedback to students enhances students learning in all the aspects like what are they doing well and what are the areas they need to improve.

As a teacher of little learners of Year 1, I collect feedback in various ways from my students during the lessons as well as meeting with the parents also gives me an indirect learners feedback.

Ways to acquire learners’ feedback:

• Smileys 
• Discussion 
• Thumbs up / Thumbs down 
• Mid plenaries 
• Written Feedback

Feedback is also a self-motivation tool for students and gives a clear picture of students understanding to teachers. It is essential to incorporate methodical feedback to enhance learning environment in the classroom.

Active Learning

What is active learning?

Active learning is an appropriate way for children to develop vital skills and knowledge and a positive attitude to learning. It engages and challenges children’s thinking using real-life and imaginary situations. Active learning supports learners' development. For example, they can develop as:

• Successful learners through using their imagination and creativity, tackling new experiences and learning from them, and developing important skills including literacy and numeracy through exploring and investigating.
• Confident individuals through succeeding in their activities and learning about bouncing back from setbacks.
• Responsible citizens through learning to share and give and take, learning to respect themselves and others, and taking part in making decisions.
• Effective contributors through tackling problems, extending communication skills, taking part in sustained talking and thinking, and respecting the opinions of others.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of active learning?

Active learning have pros and cons however as per my experience, active learning engage a greater range of students in effective learning and it positively affects the attitude of students toward self and peers in the learning process. It can build community within the classroom.

Advantages of Active Learning

• Children have more opportunity to be independent learners.
• Studies have shown that children’s attention fades fast after 15-20 minutes – getting them involved and talking to their peers reenergizes them and ‘resets’ the attention clock.
• Children get involved and engaged in activities that helps to keep them interested and focused.
• Children usually find such activities energising and are likely to engage in more.
• Peer support and peer learning: Collaborative activities (such as group work, pair work or triads) provide children with opportunities to learn from and support each other.
• By sharing knowledge and experiences, by being encouraged to take a different perspective on a particular topic children may learn to reflect critically on the things they do and say.

Disadvantages of active learning 

• These activities will take up class time.
• It takes time and effort to create good activities. 
• It is difficult to know if one student is doing all or none of the work in a group/pair work/triads. 
• May be difficult to organize active learning experiences. 

Overwhelmed to be a Teacher

Reading my post “Teaching: It Chose Me”, now you know what has led me to become a teacher. However, I would like to elaborate further on why I chose teaching and whether I enjoy it or not. It's hard to put into words all the reasons why I want to be a teacher, let me give it a try. Doctors, lawyers, politicians, and engineers. How did they all get to where they are today? They progressed to where they are in life because they had a teacher, someone who taught them in the way they should go. I have chosen to become a teacher because I believe no star is too far out of reach, if you put your mind to accomplishing your goal you can make it. I want my classroom to be an exciting adventure land of learning for children. I truly have a passion for making a difference in others lives. I feel that teaching is perhaps one of the most fulfilling roles in life. Some days when I take time to ponder the immensity that the role of a teacher entails I feel overwhelmed.

Self-evaluation

Through self-evaluation, each teacher will be able to identify the strengths and weaknesses in their work, and this will help improve their teaching to be more effective. The use self-evaluation assist them to identify areas for improvement, and to take the first steps towards implementing that improvement through the development of their teaching style.