What is effective questioning?
High-quality, effective questioning allows teachers to test pupil attainment within lessons and helps to develop pupil understanding.
For questioning to be effective, it shouldn’t just focus on basic information retrieval. It should also test understanding by exploring the ‘how’ (the process) and the ‘why’ (the reasoning), rather than just the ‘what’.
Find more on effective information retrieval and how to embed it into teaching practice in our other article.
Using pupil responses, teachers can:
- Address gaps in pupil knowledge in the moment
- Direct lessons more efficiently
- Note points of strength and security
After a lesson, pupil responses to questioning can then be used to inform lesson planning and refinement.
See more information on the importance of questioning in the classroom in these training materials for early career teachers (ECTs) from the Education Development Trust.
Forms of feedback, like questioning, can accelerate learning by