Number One Improvement Need: Questioning Techniques
Okay, okay. I'll be the first to admit that I can be a beast at arguing a particular point, and a house cat when it comes to formulating the correct questions to support that point. The basis of my teaching stems from my own accounts of the relevance of the material. And I just ask my students over and over (and over & over...) again, whether or not they comprehend what I've stated. So, how do I know my students understand? Most of the time, I don't know. And most of the time, they don't understand.
For the past two weeks, I've been banging my head against the wall trying to think of what I was doing wrong. I mean they SEEM to understand, but their grades would show a definite gap in learning. I could not fathom how to bridge that gap. Finally, I realized that my problem was not how I presented the material; it wasn't even about how I explained the material. My problem arose from the fact that I did not know how to ask the right questions.
Asking leading questions - or questions that direct the responder to the answer you're trying to get to while eliminating alternative answers - was the answer to my problems! I have seen a grave improvement in my students' understanding and recollection of the material, since using this questioning technique. In seeing the effectiveness of using leading questions, I plan to integrate them throughout each of my lesson plans.
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Mississippi Teacher Corps Updated: Oct 9, 2009
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