Blog Post #6

PBL And Asking "Good' Questions

Project based learning is a teaching technique based off of the students learning the material through hands-on activities, such as projects. A major concept of PBL is the students becoming more independent in the learning process. Part of this includes teachers asking their students the right questions to get their brains ticking. One of our mottos in EDM310 is "Questions Are More Important Than Answers," this statement holds true in that the question is what starts the whole process. When asked a good question, students begin to think. Some may know the answer, while others may go straight to researching to find out the answer. In this process, they may learn something new they did not originally intend. Maryellen Weimer's blog, Three Ways To Ask Better Questions In The Classroom she recommended three actions for teachers to take that she believed could improve questioning in the classroom. These three actions were, Prepare Questions, Play with Questions, and Preserve Good Questions.

The Three Actions: Prepare, Play, and Preserve

As described in Maryellen Weimer's blog, preparing your questions ahead of time will reduce the chance of asking an unclear question, which will in return increase class participation. Students are more likely to take part in a class discussion or answer a question that they understand, or at least that is presented to them clearly. Leaving a question unanswered and allowing it to linger on the minds of the students for a while will leave open the opportunity to collect a variety of answers from the students. This also allows the students to keep thinking and researching the topic, instead of just stopping after their first answer. Preserving a question, or saving it for the right time can be useful and effective in questioning your students. Waiting to ask a really good question until the time is right and can better fit with the goals of the lesson. Also, writing down, or keeping record of good questions asked by students can be considered a form of preserving your questions. One job of teachers is to inspire their students, but sometimes they inspire us instead, and that is something you want to write down and to remember.

What do we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher?

In order to be effective teachers, we need to know the goals we want to accomplish with our students first. Not just for the year as a whole, but also in our individual lesson plans. Knowing these goals, gives teachers a chance to pre write questions to ask the class. We also need to know how to properly ask the questions where they are perceived clearly by the students. It is important for us as teachers to know the techniques associated with PBL and asking good questions, because the two work hand in hand in my opinion. The most important thing to know is how to ask a good question; one that will get the students thinking and keep them thinking. Possibly one that is left unanswered, so the students can draw their own conclusions from it.