Teachers ask a lot of questions in their work – some research suggests that teachers ask up to 400 questions every day when they are teaching! The better the questions that teachers ask, the better their teaching will be.
Much research has been undertaken about good questions, for example by Wragg and Brown (2001) and Hattie (2008).The research concludes that effective questions:
![]() Pause for thought Reflect on the questions you asked in the last lesson you taught.
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Activity 3 asks you to first prepare for asking effective questions, and then to try out these questions when teaching your students.
If you can do this part of the activity with another teacher, you may find that it is easier.
Think about the next lesson in which you will teach on fractions. What is it you want the students to know? Write some notes about that now.
What previous knowledge do you think they will need in order to understand the ideas you want them to learn? Write a question which will enable you to know whether or not they have that prior knowledge. For example, you could ask your students: ‘Can you give me an example of …? And another? And another? And another? And another?’ Asking for more examples could help you to find out the extent of their knowledge and some of the students’ misconceptions.
Think about some of the ways that fractions are used in the real world. Write a question that might interest or engage the students because it is based on something they know about and use.
Now write an easy question for the particular topic you have to teach and then write a hard question. Write a sequence of questions that will challenge your students – but not too much!
Think about all the ways that misconceptions can happen in fractions. Write two or three questions that will help you check whether or not your students have these misconceptions. You can find some examples of such questions in Case Study 2. It is also important to think ahead about how you might respond to your students’ answers in the best way to reinforce learning and extend their thinking. You can use Resource 2 to help you think about some ideas for how to receive your students’ responses.
Now write a question that will encourage your students to reason their way to a solution. For example, ‘Your big sister never believes what you say. How will you convince her that your method works?’
Now you have written these questions, use them with a class.
Did you think that the class learned more because they used these questions?
Don’t forget to use real objects to allow your students to work with ideas on fractions and to approach challenging questions through a process of reasoning.
![]() Video: Planning lessons |
When thinking about Part 1 of Activity 3, I decided I would use my normal introduction to fractions by demonstrating fractions on the blackboard as usual, but to be very precise and repetitive in the questions and instructions I was going to use. I wrote them down on a piece of paper, and put them on my desk so I would not forget them.
These are the questions and prompts I prepared:
I drew the circle using chalk. I then invited students to come to the blackboard, and asked them the questions. Having the questions written down really helped me to focus and helped to avoid diversions from what I had intended to do. I also noticed that as a result there was less ‘teacher talk’ and more student talk and student work.
![]() Pause for thought
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