The moment a toddler takes birth, it announces his/her arrival with the primary cry. As kids grow, parents start modeling conversation skills, thereby nurturing the communication skills of youngsters by making them capable of expressing what they feel. While growing up, children tend to ask tons of questions, and this innate desire or curiosity to understand the planet by asking questions acts as a catalyst in communication.
Just like plants need the proper amount of sunlight, water, clean soil, and a few nutrients within the soil for food. Our learners should be taught the art of listening, speaking, receiving and giving feedback, and most significantly of asking questions.
Inspired by the" Golden Circle" – Simon Sinek's work of starting with the WHY, let's begin by inquiring into the aim of "Questioning" within the process of teaching and learning.
Why Is Questioning Skill Important within the Teaching And Learning Process?
"If I influenced with the great fairy, who is meant to preside over the christening of all children, I might ask her gift to every child within the world be a way of wonder so indestructible that it might last throughout life" - Rachel Carson 1965
The quote by Rachael Carson explains to us that a child's world is filled with excitement and wonder. To strengthen the instinct of wondering, questioning is a crucial skill to be developed in learning, and an honest question can open minds. It's an issue that always leads us to wonder, reflect, discover and challenge new ideas, uncover new meaning by taking us from the known to unknown.
Asking questions may be an excellent way of obtaining more information on a few particular concepts or ideas or just starting a conversation and keeping it going. Those with good questioning skills are often also excellent listeners as they spend longer absorbing information from others than sharing their judgments and opinions. Questioning is at the guts of communication; it's an expansion of critical communication skills in children. An excellent question is adequate to great communication; hence, questioning is the essential mantra to successful communication.
Promoting learner questions in school may be a significant role of an Inquiry teacher. They're always striving hard to urge their learners to be questioners who are thirsty to seek out out new information, critique the planet around them, and determine more about who am I as a learner?
How Teachers Can Develop A Culture Of Questioning In Classrooms?
Nearly a century ago, Dewey made a prescient observation about classroom questioning culture that also holds today:
No one has ever explained why children are so filled with questions outside of the varsity, and therefore the conspicuous absence of display of curiosity about the topic matter of faculty lessons. Reflection on this striking contrast will throw the question of how far customary school conditions supply a context of experience during which (questions) naturally suggest themselves.
The real issue is within the classroom culture, here would means that teachers have enormous power. Their behavior will determine an impression on the climate of questioning within the classroom. A teacher's curiosity positively infects the whole classroom; they have to model curiosity and foster an environment where learners feel safe and cozy in asking questions. Thomas Kuhn said, "The answers you get depend upon the questions you ask." While it raises a dialogue or a conversation that goes back and forth between two or more people, this type of collaborative communication will lead learners in deep thinking, allow them to reflect on their learning, and find constructive solutions to problems and issues around them.
What Can Teachers Do to enhance Questioning Skills in Learners?
Try these 5 Magical strategies by Vidhyashram International School, the best English Medium School in Jodhpur –
Question Cube –
The question cube creates tension on the learners in framing critical thinking questions from a book you've got read and pictures of important things or main ideas. This strategy is often utilized in any subject focus.
See- Think- Wonder-
Visible thinking Routine is a straightforward yet reliable tool for assist learners in generating questions. Beginning with a visual prompt, learners share their thinking at each step before moving on to the subsequent one. This facilitates the learners to create on the group's thinking and sometimes leads to more profound and meaningful discussions.
De Bono Six Thinking Hats –
Using the mental metaphor from De Bono's six thinking hats can help learners answer the right questions and amplify their learning engagement.
Question Quadrant-
Teachers often struggle with getting their learners to know and ask good open-ended questions. To urge them to understand the various sorts of questions, the Question Quadrant may be a tool first devised by Philip Cam (2006) while working with students and teachers to sort and categorize learner questions. It's a tool that assists teachers to explicitly teach question types to use students' inquiries to guide learning.
Question Wall –
Question wall is popularly referred to as a wonder wall or learning wall. An issue wall may be a space within the classroom where learners post their questions. In remote teaching, we will design a virtual fence using the EDTech tool Padlet or Wakelet. Teachers can incorporate this questioning strategy in their classes before, during, and after a lesson. With question walls, learners can write their burning questions enabling them to express their wonderings securely. This strategy is beneficial because it stimulates learners to think critically, boosts active learning and participation.
Communication skills in children are vital to being a successful communicator, an empathic leader, and a contributive global citizen. The art of questioning is at the guts of the event of communication skills. Questions are often asked during a formal or an off-the-cuff setting. Asking questions within the classroom or reception may be a driver of learning. It'll always be an essential slice of each child's education. Powerful questions can create an explosion in education. Parents and teachers must encourage young learners to ask questions and supply them with a chance to research their learning.
This requires a shift in thinking. Parents and teachers must share the facility of asking questions with the learners.
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