Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants

Open Ended Questioning

Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants

Extended Wait TimeWhen asking questions make sure you give enough wait time, it sounds simple but many teachers fall into the trap of not waiting long enough.

Give them time to think!Paired talk is a good way of getting all pupils to engage with a question before they answer it, not too long, just enough is the key.

Back to Outstanding Learning

Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants

It’s Basketball not Table Tennis

Try to get pupils to bounce answers off each

other, passing them on and commenting on

what has already been said

It’s Teacher …pupil…pupil …pupil…

NOT

Teacher…pupil…teacher…pupil…

Back to Outstanding Learning

Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants

What is a ‘good’ question?

Discuss with students what makes a

‘good’ question. The process can

explicitly show them the difference

between open and closed questions.

They can then come up with

questions on a topic and decide

which are best, and then move on

to discuss and answer these.

Back to Outstanding Learning

Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants

BouncingBounce answers around the room to

build on understanding and have

students develop stronger reasoning

out of misconceptions.

E.g.

“Jimmy, what do you think of

Sandra’s answer?”

“Sandra, how could you develop

Carl’s answer to include more detail?”

“Carl, how might you combine all

we’ve heard into a single answer?”

Back to Outstanding Learning

Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants

Rich Questioning

Use an enquiry question to stimulate

high-level thinking in the lesson or

unit.

e.g.

Do scientists invent complicated words to stop other people from understanding what

they're up to?

Back to Outstanding Learning

Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants

‘Might’When questioning, insert the word

‘might’ to give students greater

opportunity to think and explore

possible answers.

e.g.

What is meaning of osmosis?

What might the meaning of

osmosis be?

The first infers a single answer known

by the teacher whereas the second is

inherently more open.

What might the osmosis look like?

Back to Outstanding Learning

Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants

X and Y

Ask students why X is an example of Y

e.g.

Why is an apple an example of a fruit?

Why is a fox an example of a mammal?

Questioning in this way avoids factual

recall and asks for the underlying

reasoning to be made explicit.

Back to Outstanding Learning

Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants

Tell your neighbour

Students ‘tell their neighbour’ as a

means of articulating their thoughts.

- Ask a question, give thinking time

and then ask students to tell their

neighbour their thoughts.

- Tell students what the new topic is and then ask them to tell their neighbour everything they know about it.

Back to Outstanding Learning

Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants

Group Answers

Students work in small groups to

agree on answers – when tests are

returned or in other situations.

The process of agreeing should

include reasoning over the validity of

the consensus answer, as well as

reasoned negation of misconceptions

or wrong answers.

Back to Outstanding Learning

Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants

Idea Thoughts

When you have received an answer

to a question, open up the thinking

behind it by asking what others think

about the idea.

e.g. “What do others think about _________’s idea?”

Back to Outstanding Learning

Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants

Level Ladders and QuestioningUse the vocabulary in the ladder to put questions to pupils at different levels, they can be trained to identify them and can comment on or improve each others answers. It will help you to move away from low level questioning (i.e. Key word answers).

Match/name/identify

Use models to explain

Explain

Describe

Apply

SynthesiseMake links

L3

L5

L4

L7

L6

Back to Outstanding Learning

Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants

Why? How? What would happen?Using the words

• How…• Why…• What would happen…

At the start of a question tends to make it

more open-ended and gets better

responses from pupils.

Back to Outstanding Learning

Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants

ExtendingHelp pupils to extend their answers with

supplementary questions

• Why do think that…

• What evidence is there….

• What have we done that makes you think that…

• Can you justify that…

• Can you include the idea of particles…

Back to Outstanding Learning

Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants

Word Count

Set a minimum number of words that must

be used.

I want you to use at least 10 words in your answer!

Set some words that must be used in the

answer

I want you to include the words particle, bonds and reaction in your answer!

Paired talk works well with these types of approaches.

Back to Outstanding Learning

Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants

Pyramid DiscussionThis activity provides a structure for whole class or

group discussion of “big” open-ended questions.• Cut out the six triangles, each of which has a comment about a

• big question.

• Arrange the triangles into a pyramid…

• Placing the comment you most agree with at the top.

• Placing the three comments you least agree with at the base of the pyramid.

• Placing the two comments you quite agree with in the middle.

• Use your pyramid to scaffold

discussion of the big question.

Back to Outstanding Learning