Questioning Strategies

That Minimize
Behavior Problems
By Nathan Bond
From Kappa Delta Pi Record

UESTIONING plays an important role in today's instruction. It accounts for 80

percent of classroom talk. Some
teachers ask more than 100 questions per hour! Because this instructional strategy dominates class
time, and because students are active during the lesson, there are
more chances for management
problems to arise if teachers do not
follow good questioning techniques.
Classroom management problems occur under two circumstances during question-and-answer sessions. First, if students are
dissatisfied or bored, they may exhibit off-task behavior as a way to
let the teacher know that the instruction is failing to meet their

needs. Second, students may misbehave if they are unclear about

the expected behavior. Exchanges
between teachers and students occur quickly during a question-andanswer session, and teachers seldom make explicit the way they
want the class to respond. Thus,
students act out because they are
unable to "read the teacher's mind."
Though educational literature
provides some advice for asking
questions, it often omits specific
strategies that teachers can follow
when employing this instructional
approach.This article highlights
someofthetechniques mentioned
in the literature and offers additional strategies to minimize classroom management problems.

Nathan Bond is associate professor of curriculum and instruction at Texas

State University. Condensed from Kappa Delta Pi Record, 44 (Fall 2007), 1921. Published by Kappa Delta PI, International Honor Society in Education,
www.kdp.org.

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THE EDUCATION DIGEST

1 . Write out some questions

when planning the lesson.
Teachers seldom write down
their questions while planning; instead they generate them extemporaneously during the lesson. This
approach can lead to vague questions that do not engage students
in high-quality thinking, and, consequently, unengaged learners may
misbehave out of confusion or boredom. Teachers should generate
questions that are clearly written,
appropriate for the students' ability, and sequenced in a logical way.
To go a step further, teachers
can project the planned questions
on a screen using overheads or
PowerPoint slides. By doing so, the
instruction becomes clearer and
multisensory by providing both
auditory and visual input.
2. Establish your expectations
for behavior before beginning
the questioning period.
Teachers may want to remind
students to raise their hands, listen
carefuUyto classmates'comments,
and respect one another's right to
self-expression. Clarifying the
ground rules reduces confusion and
helps everyone know how to act. In
addition to learning appropriate
behavior for a discussion in a classroom, students learn important
real-world social skills that can be
used in a business or work setting.
3. Call on a variety of students.
The elements of surprise and

42

uncertainty are ways to keep students on their toes during a discussion. Teachers can keep students'
attention by calling on them randomly. Because students are uncertain about on whom the teacher
will call, they will remain attentive.
Students will want to respond correctly because they generally do
not want to look bad or be embarrassed in front of their peers.
Teachers should keep a record
(either mentally or in writing) of
the students who were asked questions. Effective educators know that
they must interact with all children
by the end of the lesson and keep
all children engaged for maximum
learning to occur.
4. Cue students before asking
the question.
Classroom management problems arise because students cannot read their teacher's mind and
thus do not know how to respond.
Cueing the class before asking the
question can minimize disruptive
outbursts. Four cueing techniques
follow:
Call on a specific student and
then ask the question (e.g., "John,
what is the capital city of the United
States?"). This approach is advantageous for two reasons: the teacher
can ensure that a wide variety of
students are involved throughout
the lesson, and everyone clearly
knows whom the teacher is addressing. As a result, management issues
should not occur. A disadvantage

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Questioning Strategies iVIinimize Behavior Probiems

of this cueing approach, however,

is that the remaining learners in the
class will stop thinking once they
hear a classmate's name being
called. Quickening the pace may
solve this problem.
Ask students to raise their
hands and then ask the question
(e.g., "Please raise your hand if you
can answer this question. What is
the capital city of the United
States?"). Teachers can use this
approach as an informal assessment to determine the number of
students who appear to know the
answer and to give slower learners
more time to formulate one. This
cueing approach is clear, so management problems should be minimal. The only caveat is that students who do not raise their hands
are embarrassed for not knowing
the answer and may act out as a
way to cover their lack of knowledge.
Ask students to shout out the
answer and then ask the question
(e.g., "Boys and girls, please shout
out the answer to this question if
you know it. What is the capital city
of the United States?"). Best used at
the beginning of a discussion, this
approach encourages participation
because students do not have to
worry about the correctness of their
answers. Teachers should use this
cueing technique cautiously because noise levels can quickly escalate out of control. If the cueing
strategy is used before the question is asked, then the problems

should be few because students

know the teacher's expectations.
Ask all students to think of an
answer before asking the question
(e.g., "Boys and girls, I'm going to
ask a question. I want everyone to
think of an answer. Then I will call
on someone. What is the capital
city of the United States?" Pause to
allow students time to think of an
answer. Then follow up with, "John,
please share your answer.").
Though teachers have to provide more cueing initially, the approach fosters more thinking from
the class as a whole and allows
teachers to maintain classroom
control. Again, classroom problems
should be minimal because more
students are engaged in thinking
and because they are unsure on
whom the teacher will call.
5. Ask questions that are the
appropriate ievei for each
student.
"Success breeds success." When
students feel success, they are more
inclined to persist with a task. To
help them feel success, teachers
should tactfully ask questions at
the appropriate level. Many instructors will call on students randomly
as a way to keep everyone engaged;
however, there is a downside to
this approach. Calling on students
randomly means that some questions will be answered incorrectly
and that some people in the class
will become discouraged.
Frustrated students may try to

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THE EDUCATION DIGEST

hide their feelings by acting out or

by distracting others. Lower-achiev-.
ing students especially need to feel
success and should be given feedback for their correct answers. Asking questions that involve personal
issues or opinions is one way to
involve this group. If low-achieving
students feel that the question is
too hard or too easy, then they may
misbehave.
6. Ask questions that elicit
positive or correct responses.
This technique often is used by
sjjeakers to keep their audience
engaged. It is recomiiiended that
75 percent of teachers! questions
should elicit correct responses. Students will rerhain motivated and
engaged with the teacher if they
feel positively toward the information and' can answer the teacher's
questions correctly most of the
time. Students generally will not
disrupt the lesson if they are feeling successful.
7. Provide students with sufficient wait time after asking a
question and. before responding to their comments.
A study on questioning found
that teachers wait a mere 0.9 seconds on average for their students
to respond to a question. This
amount of time Is too short for average learners to complete the four
mental steps required to answer a
question.
.
Students must first hear the

44

question and decide whether they

understand it. Second, they must
recall the information from their
memories. Third; they must consider whether their response will
beaccepted; and, fourth, they must
decide whether the teacher will
praise or rebuke their response. .
When teachers increase the
amount of wait time, the length of
the responses increases, the responses reflect higher-level thought,
and the failures to respond decrease. When students are afforded
time to think of an answer, they
also are less likely to misbehave. .
8. Vary the way students respond to questions.
Responding verbally is the most
common way for students to answer the teacher's question. An alternate approach is to ask everyone to jot down an answer before
calling on a student.
Requiring students to record
their answers encourages wider
participation by the class and reduces management problems because students are busy writing and
do not have time to misbehave. In
addition, the teacher may want to
call on several people before providing the answers.
,
9. Vary the person who responds to the questions.
Rather than the teacher always
responding to the students, another
variation is to ask classmates to
respond to one another's re--

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Questioning Strategies Minimize Behavior Problems

sponses. This approach promotes

positive social interaction by encouraging respectful listening. It
also involves more people in the
lesson and creates a more interactive exchange between individuals.
The more students participate in
the lesson, the less likely they are
to misbehave.
10. Respond to every answer
and correct errors.
Listen carefully to students'comments and maintain a high ratio of
positive to negative verbal feedback. Respond to every answer and
offer specific praise. By doing so,
teachers show their students that
they value their idecis.
As a result, students will be more
inclined to behave because they
know that they are respected. Furthermorie, if a student does not seem
to understand, ask a classniate to
rephrase the question or rephrase
it yourself. If an answer is incorrect, indicate the part that is correct or ask a follow-up question for
^clarification.
1 1 . Ask foilow-up questions.
One way to foster more discussion is to ask follow-up questions.
Ninety-five percent of teachers'
questions cire classified as low-level,
usually requiring a yes or no respohse. Teachers can elicit more
discussion by asking students to
justify or explain their reasoning.
Asking "why" questions promotes
higher-order thinking.

12. Encourage students to ask

questions.:
-A study of elementary and secondary school classes found that
each student asks only one question per month on average. Teachers must take deliberate steps to
get their learners to ask questions.
At the beginning of the school
year, a short activity could be
planned that, requires the class to
ask questions about.a topic For
example, students could play the
game Twenty Questions. Repeating the activity and rewarding participants will foster the desired behavior. Once the classroom culture
of questions has been established,
students then will feel more comfortable asking them.
Ciosing Thoughts
Questions can be used to assess
readiness for new learning, to create interest and motivation in learning, to make concepts more precise, to check student understanding of the material, to redirect offtask students to more positive behavior, and to create the moderate
amount of tension that enhances
learning.
Asking good questions is an important skill that teachers must
develop. Because this approach is
used often, there is an increased
chance for problems to occur. Following these recommended approaches should minimize classroom problems and maximize student learning.
SB

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