• present new information

• extend existing knowledge in a new context

• raise issues and questions on a topic for debate and

discussion

• stimulate interest in a new topic

• set the scene for student’s research

• revise/provide a summarising overview of a topic

• show the application/relevance of information

• provide visual support for abstract concepts

• provide stimulus material for assessment

• Apply criteria – such as those on handout

• Consider the implications of your evaluation for the use of the video

What will be the

What will you need?

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• Whole class oral question and answer session

• Worksheet to be completed

• Role play

• Individual research

• Learners generate questions

• A quiz

• Diagram to be labeled

• Debate

• Adapt the video as you think necessary

• Prepare resources – worksheets; questions you will ask; descriptions of roles for role players; topic for debate etc.

• Prepare venue and check equipment

Different kinds of questions

Who invented

the telephone

?

When was Nelson

Mandela released?

What crops are grown in

Gauteng?

What was the name of the first person to land

on the moon?

Factual questions

Correct, factual answers

Direct learners to process of gathering information

Provide only a starting point for developing understanding and new ways of thinking about the world

How many people live in India?

Why was the first person to land on

the moon an American man rather than an

African woman?

How do the crops grown in Gauteng generate income for the province

and contribute to the SA economy

as a whole?

How did the release of Nelson

Mandela affect political change in

South Africa?

What access do people in India have to

resources such as education?

Relational Questions

Make us think about a range of relationships between facts

Encourage learners to extend way they think

More open ended than factual questions –but we must have some factual information to answer them

Reference: Moll, I. et al (2001). Learners and Learning. SAIDE/OUP

Why do people travel to the moon?What climate factors facilitate the growth of these crops for profit?

Why did the government of the day decide to release Mandela, and what were the consequences of

this decision? How is it possible to transmit sound through telephone wires?

Explanatory questions

Require us to think about certain facts in relation to other facts – focusing on causes and reasons for things being as

they are/happening as they do

Reference: Moll, I. et al (2001). Learners and Learning. SAIDE/OUP

Is the expenditure of state money on

space travel justified

Is this the best use of the natural and

human resources of the province?

What’s the best looking, smallest cell-phone on the

market?

Do people in India have equal access

to health and education?

Evaluative questions

Ask whether things are good, right, fair, or whether we find them beautiful, interesting, saddening,

inspiring.

No right or wrong answer than can be proven – often based on our beliefs.

Answer must be assessed on how well it is substantiated or argued

Likely to evoke the most debate in class

Reference: Moll, I. et al (2001). Learners and Learning. SAIDE/OUP

• To assess the product of learning

• To drive the process of learning

– Intriguing questions can predispose learners to learn and make them more receptive to teaching

– A wide variety of questions can deepen and widen learners thinking and critical skills

– Listening to learners’ questions (and answers) can provide teachers with tools to guide their teaching

Reference: Moll, I. et al (2001). Learners and Learning. SAIDE/OUP

• Factual questions require learners to recall/remember/identify and extract information without processing it in a complex way

Reference: Moll, I. et al (2001). Learners and Learning. SAIDE/OUP

• Relational, explanatory and evaluative questions

–Can extend learners’ thinking

–Help learners focus on unfamiliar aspects of what they already know

–Encourage learners to actively construct new links between existing facts

Reference: Moll, I. et al (2001). Learners and Learning. SAIDE/OUP

• build knowledge up – start with factual and move on

• scaffold learning

• ensure conceptual coherence and a logical flow.

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