As we have noted, one of the main purposes of assessment is to help us to come to know our students better as musicians. Questioning in the widest sense of the word is a key way to achieve this. Traditionally, questioning has been used primarily to test understanding of propositional knowledge; for example:
These are what are known as ‘closed questions’ and tend to focus on knowledge about music. They are questions that are rooted in ‘facts’ about music and there is a tendency when asking such questions to require instantaneous or near-instantaneous responses – a kind of musical pub quiz.
However, questioning can be used in much more subtle and enriching ways to engage young people in their learning, to find out what they are trying to do in their music, and to encourage them to reflect upon and critically evaluate their work. Such questioning encourages young people to think about their music-making and what they are trying to achieve.
Black et al. suggest that in order to ensure that questioning is at its most effective, teachers should:
- spend effort framing questions that are worth asking, i.e. questions which explore issues and which develop students’ understanding
- allow young people the time to think and expect them to contribute to the discussion
- plan follow-up activities to check that the question has had impact upon learning and teaching.
(Adapted from Philpott and Spruce, 2007, p. 213)
Examples of questions that explore a child’s engagement with music and their understanding of its expressive power (their ‘knowledge of’ music) might be:
Examples of questions that you might use to ensure that you and the young people have a common understanding of what they and you are trying to achieve and which explore ‘success criteria’ might include:
However, if such questions are to be effective then they need to be used in a thoughtful way and not mechanistically.
Allow about 45 minutes
Think about a lesson that you are going to teach. Devise a set of questions that will help you:
OpenLearn - Assessment in secondary music Except for third party materials and otherwise, this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence, full copyright detail can be found in the acknowledgements section. Please see full copyright statement for details.