People think of math as working primarily with symbols and numbers, but language plays an important role as well. Encouraging students to reflect on different problem-solving strategies, ask questions and discuss their thinking is beneficial for students and teachers.
For students, this kind of questioning and math discourse leads to deeper thinking and better engagement in the learning process. For teachers, it serves as a kind of formative assessment, revealing where students might have conceptual misunderstandings and where educators should focus their instruction.
For these reasons, I always wanted to foster rich conversations in my classroom when I taught math, and encouraging students to ask their own questions was one critical strategy I used to accomplish this goal.
Benefits of student questioning
Having students ask questions conveys many benefits. For instance, asking good questions helps students sharpen their thinking about math. It forces them to reflect on what they know and don’t know about a particular concept, leading to a deeper understanding of the content.
By asking questions, students are taking ownership of their learning. Student engagement and participation improve when students are rewarded for asking questions in class.
Encouraging students to ask questions can also spark their curiosity and develop their critical thinking skills, setting them up to be lifelong learners. It helps them understand how to gather information to solve complex problems while also teaching them how to advocate for themselves. These are fundamental skills for success in any discipline.
Keys to success
While students become deeper thinkers and more effective learners when they’re encouraged to ask questions, this practice can be challenging to implement. Here are three tips for getting students to ask questions in class successfully.
Teach and model different types of questions
Knowing how to ask good questions is a skill in itself, but students should not be expected to understand it on their own. Teachers need to explain the various types of questions that exist and when it makes sense to use them. For instance, closed questions have a single correct answer, while open questions can lead to a deeper conversation.
Educators can help students refine their questioning skills, resulting in more meaningful queries, by teaching them how to ask effective questions and modeling this skill for them.
Get all students involved
To have a math classroom where questioning leads to deeper learning, everyone needs to participate. Creating a culture in which questioning is a natural (and daily) part of the learning process sends a message to all students that they matter and their thinking is valued.
Overcome the stigma of asking questions in class
Many students are reluctant to ask questions in class because they’re worried this will make them look ignorant or they’ll be judged by their peers. To successfully encourage students to ask questions, teachers must remove the stigma associated with this activity and create a safe environment for them to do so.
How a “why jar” can help
One technique I found to be effective was implementing a “why jar” in my classroom. This was simply a jar that students could use to submit their questions after class.
I encouraged my students to use the “why jar” to ask whatever questions came into their minds that day: Simple questions about anything they didn’t understand in that day’s lesson or more complex questions that would lead to a deeper discussion the next time we met.
Leaving their questions in written form anonymously gave shy students a non-threatening way to participate in the questioning process. It circumvented the stigma associated with asking questions in class while still helping to guide discussion and giving me an idea of where my students were struggling to understand a topic. Students would also use the jar if we didn’t have time to get to their questions before the bell rang, which kept their curiosity alive.
Research suggests this practice can be very effective. One study found that “asking students to pose questions to the course instructor in written form appears to aid them in learning the material, as [measured by] their ability and performance on exams. In addition, the information gained from the written questions can … be used by the instructor to better relate to student understanding, spot disconnects, and provide further explanation or clarity when needed.”
However teachers choose to implement this strategy in their classroom, encouraging all students to ask thoughtful questions helps them develop invaluable habits that will serve them well throughout their lives while also leading to rich classroom discourse and deeper learning and engagement.
Opinions expressed by SmartBrief contributors are their own.
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