Effective Questioning and the Effect of Voice on Student Engagement by Breanna

Effective Questioning

breanna_wu — 2018-03-18 19:11:09 UTC

Engages analysis, evaluation, and synthesis to encourage meaningful learning _{^{(Chen, Hand, & Norton-Meier, 2016, p.378).}}
With regards to student learning in class:
Close-ended questions:
- Focus on recalling information
Open ended questions:
- Stimulates articulated student responses
- Advances higher levels of cognitive thinking in regards to comprehension (in Bloom's taxonomy)
- Encourage students to clarify their ideas
- Motivates, targets explanation and prediction
- Engages social negotiation

When students engage with reading:
Reciprocal questioning involves a dialogue between teachers and students to aid understanding as students predict, question, classify, and summarize information.
Questioning the author helps students construct meaning from the text
Question answer and response teaches students to look to the text and their background knowledge (making inferences) for answers (James & Carter, 2007)

_{^{(James & Carter, 2007), (Kracl & Harshbarger, 2017), (Stronge, Ward, Tucker, & Hindman, 2007), (Stokhof, De Vries, Martens, & Bastiaens, 2017), (Chen, Hand, & Norton-Meier, 2016)}}

Voice

breanna_wu — 2018-03-18 19:11:25 UTC

The pitch, volume, and pace of your voice affect others about five times more than the actual words you used (O'Toole, 2012).
To communicate with power through voice:
1. Ask questions
2. Keep your voice calm and even
3. Slow down
4. Fine tune pitch: squeaky, authority, strengthen
5. Smooth tempo: excitement and emphasis
6. Pauses: suspense and opportunity to process
7. Match tone to words - regulating emotion
8. Increase volume - appropriate projection
9. Vary in tone, pitch, volume - avoid monotone
10. Eliminate audible pauses - um, ah, er, like, er

_{^{(Condrill, 2013), (Whitmore, 2013), (Bonanno, 2011), (University of Wisconsin Law School, 2018)}}

Putting the Research into Practice

breanna_wu — 2018-03-18 19:11:47 UTC

Literature Review

breanna_wu — 2018-03-18 19:13:17 UTC

Effective Questioning: Inquiry (Conversational)

breanna_wu — 2018-04-04 01:48:47 UTC

Me: After discussing relevant field trip. Summarizes their discussion on respect a few weeks back where they talked about respecting themselves and others. Today, we’re going to focus on the environment. How do you think we can respect the environment?
Student 3 - don't pollute
Student 1 - don't brag or show off
Student 2 - don't catch fish and throw it out
Student 1 - if you shoot an animal you can't just say thank you, you have to say thank you to nature - it's rude, that animal gave you its life
Student 4 - you have to say thank you, you can catch a fish and eat it
Student 4 - we literally killed them and made them not have a life - say thank you for killing yourself so we can eat
Student 2 - if it was a mom or a dad you should say before you kill it I hope your children have a good life without you
Me: Summarizes discussion about fishing, meat, and wastefulness.

References

breanna_wu — 2018-04-04 02:40:35 UTC

Bonanno, G. (2011, December 30). Public Speaking – 5 Tips for Using Your Voice Effectively. Retrieved March 19, 2018, from SelfGrowth.com: http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/public-speaking-5-tips-for-using-your-voice-effectively

Chen, Y.-C., Hand, B., & Norton-Meier, L. (2016). Teacher Roles of Questioning in Early Elementary Science Classrooms: A Framework Promoting Student Cognitive Complexities in Argumentation. Research in Science Education , 47, 373-405.

Condrill, J. (2013, August 3). 10 Tips for Communicating with Power. Retrieved March 18, 2018, from Business Know-How: https://www.businessknowhow.com/growth/commpower.htm

Hannel, I. (2009). Insufficient questioning: effective questioning can keep students interested and improve their learning. Phi Delta Kappan , 91 (3), 65+.

James, I., & Carter, T. S. (2007). Questioning and informational texts: scaffolding students comprehension of content areas. Forum on Public Policy: A Journal of the Oxford Round Table , 1-13.

Kiss, T., & Wang, A. (2017). Investigating Teacher Questions Within the Framework of Knowledge Building Pedagogy. Journal of International Social Studies , 7 (1), 55-69.

Kracl, C., & Harshbarger, D. (2017). Methods and Strategies: Ask the Right Question. Science and Children , 54 (9), 78-82.

Ontario Ministry of Education. (2011). Asking Effective Questions. Capacity Building Series (21), 1-8.

O'Toole, K. (2012, March 2012). Behavior Lessons for Leadership and Teamwork. Retrieved March 18, 2018, from Stanford Graduate School of Business: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/behavior-lessons-leadership-teamwork

Schwartz, C. (2015). Developing the Practice of Teacher Questioning through a K-2 Elementary Mathematics Field Experience. Investigations in Mathematics Learning , 7 (3), 30-50.

Stokhof, H. J., De Vries, B., Martens, R. L., & Bastiaens, T. J. (2017). How to guide effective student questioning: a review of teacher guidance in primary education. Review of Education , 5 (2), 123-165.

Stronge, J. H., Ward, T. J., Tucker, P. D., & Hindman, J. L. (2007). What is the Relationship Between Teacher Quality and Student Achievement? An Exploratory Study. Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education , 20, 165-184.

University of Wisconsin Law School. (2018). Use Your Voice Effectively. Retrieved March 19, 2018, from University of Wisconsin Law School: https://law.wisc.edu/academics/lawskills/oral_communication/course_manual/use_voice_effectively.html

Way, J. (2008). Using Questioning to Stimulate Mathematical Thinking. Australian Primary Mathematics Classroom , 13 (3), 22-27.

Whitmore, J. (2013, September 27). Sound Advice: How to Make Your Voice More Effective. Retrieved March 18, 2018, from Entrepreneur: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/228515

Four Teacher Roles for Questioning

breanna_wu — 2018-04-05 03:03:34 UTC

Higher-level cognitive responses with use of:
- Moderator, coach, and participant roles
- Various strategies and thus, roles
_{^{(Chen, Hand, & Norton-Meier, 2016, p.384-6)}}

Questioning and Voice: Guided Reading (Half Scripted Routine)

breanna_wu — 2018-04-05 03:59:14 UTC

"Fact or Fiction? How do you know?" - Dispenser, low retrieval, direct answer
Picture Walk: "What's happening here?!" - Participant, high, low and slow voice
- Moved into question and response with varying volumes of voice - highly engaged
Rules: "Can anyone tell me one of the things we should remember?" - Dispenser

breanna_wu — 2018-04-05 04:28:39 UTC

How can I ask effective questions and use my voice in a way that promotes higher-level thinking and engagement?

The Class: Grade 1, 23 students, independent school, high SES

breanna_wu — 2018-04-05 04:36:38 UTC

Questioning and Voice: Calendar (Scripted Routine)

breanna_wu — 2018-04-05 04:37:11 UTC

Questions mainly in dispenser and moderator roles, varying speeds, volumes, tones, and tempos did not elicit noticeable changes in behaviour from normal voice.

breanna_wu — 2018-04-05 04:44:29 UTC

Due to the nature of the lessons I had the opportunity to teach, effective questioning was an area I did not get to explore much as the lessons, such as calendar were scripted and the children knew the routines. As a result, varying my voice did not make noticeable differences. In the moments I asked questions as a moderator, participant, and coach, I did notice higher engagement than questions asked as a dispenser. Especially in guided reading, the open-ended prompts stimulated student thinking and responses. During inquiry, the question gave me a range of responses that led to off topic discussions that was extremely difficult to bring back despite using a low, slow, and loud voice. With voice, I never found speaking quietly, quickly, or highly to be effective in capturing attention.

Reflection on Practice

breanna_wu — 2018-04-05 04:58:25 UTC

Next Steps for Implementation

breanna_wu — 2018-04-05 04:59:31 UTC

- To further explore student responses to different types of questions and questions asked in varying roles
- To further use the different types of and roles in questioning in my teaching practice
- Incorporate more verbs that elicit higher-leveled thinking
- To continue exploring and playing around with my voice in order to communicate with power - low, slow, and varied

Next Steps for Research

breanna_wu — 2018-04-05 05:01:15 UTC

- 93% of communication is said to be non-verbal _{^{(Condrill, 2013)}}. How can my body language communicate power and control?
- How to quickly and effectively redirect focus in discussions
- How to effectively redirect discussions using questions and voice

Questioning and Voice: Independent Conversations

breanna_wu — 2018-04-05 05:09:14 UTC

"I wonder if [specific inquiry on student work]" - showing genuine interest using a hushed voice and pauses, participant role, highly engaged responses
- Louder voices did not work so well, nor did the dispenser role
- Moderator and coach role moderately engaged student action

breanna_wu — 2018-04-05 05:21:15 UTC

breanna_wu — 2018-04-05 05:53:25 UTC

Kiss's study (2017) examined the types of questions that an experienced teacher, John vs. an inexperienced teacher, Jane.
Kiss discusses the difference in questions based on teacher-approaches, John is student-centred and wants his students to realize their potential, whereas Jane's approach focuses on direct teaching although she also expresses her desire to empower students and act as a facilitator.
Kiss' study suggests a need for professional development for inexperienced teachers as effective questioning has a "significant impact on learning" as questions have a "direct influence on the learning and thinking habits of their learners" _{^{(Kiss, 2017, p.56).}}

breanna_wu — 2018-04-05 06:03:17 UTC

breanna_wu — 2018-04-05 06:10:19 UTC

One of the Capacity Building Series addresses asking effective questions and suggests 8 tips:
1. Anticipate student thinking
2. Link to learning goals
3. Pose open questions
4. Pose questions that actually need to be answered
5. Incorporate verbs that elicit higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy
6. Pose questions that open conversation
7. Neutral questions
8. Provide wait time
- In class learning, be wary of the ways in which questions are phrased to not hold biases or specific, direct, answers
_{^{(Ontario Ministry of Education, 2011)}}

breanna_wu — 2018-04-05 06:19:39 UTC

Way (2008) discusses four types of questions within the context of open-ended tasks:
1. Starter questions - focus and directs thinking
2. Stimulate thinking - focuses on particular strategies to connect experiences with learning
3. Assessment questions - to ask children to explain their thinking
4. Final discussion questions - to share and compare strategies and solutions
- These engage the various levels of thinking: memory, translation, interpretation, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation

breanna_wu — 2018-04-05 06:27:05 UTC

Kracl and Harshbarger (2017) discuss how:
- Teachers spend more time on knowledge building and comprehension, which focus on memorization and understanding text
- Students need to think beyond the obvious and make personal connections with the text
- 3 types of thinking: understanding information, transforming information, generating information