Asking questions is art. Being able to ask the right questions is an art form. I was sitting in the doctor office this week, listening to him ask a multitude of questions to get to the heart of the health issue I was having. It occurred to me that this is what teaching and assessing is like in a classroom.
Questioning skills is one skill I felt like I had a handle on, but not necessarily mastered. To get to the heart of teaching, gifted intervention specialists need to ask the right questions in order to challenge and stretch our students learning.
There are four types of questions that can be asked to students. They each have a function. They are:
- Recall
- Evaluative /Judgment
- Convergent
- Divergent
Recall questions are the type of questions that ask a student to reach into their memory and pull out some remote fact. Of the type of questioning this is simplest. There is no stretch here. There is no challenge here. Students who are gifted will get bored with this type of questioning very quickly.
Evaluative or Judgement type questions are where gifted intervention specialists ask the questions that will bring forth an opinion for a student to defend or explain. Since this is an opinion response, as teachers we are looking to see how these students structure the opinion or defend a position. There are no right or wrong answers when it comes to an opinion, what matters is how the student who is gifted framed the opinion.
Convergent questions are the type of questions that have one right answer. This can be a simple question with a “yes” or “no” answer, or a one word answer. These are types of test questions found on a multiple choice test or quiz. There is no real stretch here. It is mainly the type of question that a student can answer but doesn’t have to elaborate on.
Divergent questions are some of the most difficult questions to ask. They can be in many forms. They can be the “what if” type question that stretches our students to answer further. These can be the questions with multiple answers or solutions to a problem as if part of a project based learning project. These questions are the ones that move students thinking further and stretch them, because it allows them to be creative, and come up with multiple answers to a single question.
Students who are gifted may struggle to answer any type of the questions listed above depending on their verbal skills, and thinking or reasoning skills.
Divergent questions is where the rubber meets the road in a classroom. It is a form of differentiation that is used in many classrooms, but not always well. I would suggest, as I did myself to write out many of the divergent questions that I would want my students to answer. I would read them out load, to see if they made sense. I would often write a few drafts to get the questions just right.
How are your questioning skills? Are you a skilled questioner? What strategies do you use to help improve your questioning skills, along with those around you?
Ramblings of a Gifted Teacher 