Questioning for questions sake?
Questioning is one of the most common and successful elements of assessment for learning and assessment of learning in the classroom, but how often is it planned? How often is it effective? Are there missed opportunities? How can we managed this extremely effective tool so that it doesn’t take over the lesson? I stopped my trail of thought in the corridor earlier last week, when I realised I was doing my usual walking past students/staff saying ‘good morning, how are you?’ and walking past them before having a response, or even considering the response that may come back. I couldn’t tell you what any of the people I spoke to that morning said. Is this the same in some classrooms, where you just ask a question to a student and you already know that they know the answer? This took me back to a mentoring session in my final placement as a trainee, where I was guided to hone my questioning. I’ve built on, reflected on and developed my thoughts on this session sinc