EDM 310 Blog Post #4

One of the most important things a teacher strives for is that their students will be able to answer any question they ask. Answers are great and all, but they are not as important as the question itself. Being able to ask a good question is important because it gets your brain thinking about other possibilities. Questions lead to constructive arguments and discussions in class. Also, an answer often leads to more questions. So what is considered a good question? Lets take a look.

Asking better questions in the classroom Pt. 1.wmv by Joanne Chesley on YouTube

Open Ended Questions by Andi Stix on YouTube 

These two videos workout really well together. The first video will explain to you what the difference between a close-ended and an open-ended question is. The second video helps go into detail what exactly an open-ended question is. To recap on what these videos explained is that first as a teacher you should ask open-ended questions whenever possible. They force the student to answer with more than a "yes" or "no." The student has to draw on all of his knowledge in the subject to answer the question and then explain and defend their answer. When asking an open-ended question you can make it so that the answer is specific or more generalized. An example being, "what is the direct cause of....," would lead to a specific answer that is not yes or no. A more generalized question would be, "what do you think caused.....," as that question would procure more than one answer from your student and multiple answers could be right. Another thing to think about is that a close-ended question could very easily lead into an open-ended question. When you ask a close-ended question and your student answers then just ask them why. Your parents hated that phrase when you were a kid and your students will not like it either, because they thought they were going to get away with a yes or no question and now they are not. The last thing to keep in mind is that close-ended questions are still vital. They give teachers a good, quick reference to what their students have actually learned. After all, if you want to have a discussion question on a topic that they know half the answers to you can not really do that and have to back track to teach them what they do need to know. Open-ended questions should be the bulk of your questions to get the gears really turning, but you still need to use close-ended questions to keep a quick gauge on how much your students are really learning. 

Picture was taken from a post called "Are You Asking the Right Questions?" by Karen Brinkley on The University of Tennessee Knoxville website