Teacher's classroom questions

Most of the time that teachers spend in school is spent asking questions to students for different purposes either to assess knowledge, to check if they have understood the activities, or to create a good classroom environment, so that questioning serves for the purpose of helping teachers achieve specific purposes and help students to develop the activities in the best way.

Questioning is an essential tool for both teaching and learning. It’s one of the most popular modes of teaching because it’s possible to transfer knowledge and understanding trough asking questions, it helps teachers to keep students involve in learning, students have the opportunity to share their ideas and thoughts, it develops dialogue between students, it helps teachers to evaluate their students learning, etc.

Questions can be materialized in an oral and written form, but the most used is the oral form as it develops reflective learning. There are 3 categories of teachers in regards to asking classroom questions: the first one is the group of teachers who practice questions in an intuitive manner, the second one is the group who use questions and do not plan for it, and the last group is the one that recognizes that asking questions is important and requires advance planning.

Asking questions is a skill that not all the teachers have, but they can acquire it by the time. When teachers ask good questions, students are able to feel more comfortable, to participate actively in class, and to be more independent. Also, it can foster interaction between the teacher and his/her students.