How to use classroom questioning and feedback effectively in English KLA

1. How to use classroom questioning and feedback effectively in English KLA Salesian Yip Hon Millennium Primary School YUNG Pui-yan, Candy HKTA YYI Chan Lui Chung Tak Memorial School WOO Sze-wan, Emily School-based Curriculum Development (Primary) Section FUNG Ho-kwan Jeanda

2. Inspection Annual Reports 60% of the teachers in schools which underwent ESR have : • adopted questioning as a teaching strategy • asked graded questions to expand the scope of students’ thinking • given prompt follow-up to the responses from students ˊ ˊ ˊ

3. Need improvement in: • the quality of teachers’ questioning skills ‘Some teachers gave answer instantly to the questions they asked or tended to look for an answer from students that would fit in their pre-determined one.’ • the quality of teachers’ feedback ‘Some teachers only give students commonplace praise, agreement, a ‘no’ response or the ‘correct’ answers. There is a need for more feedback which better promotes students’ self-improvement.’

4. Our observations in the classroom • Most teachers use direct questioning, very few teacher modeling to provide explicit strategies for students. • Teachers, being highly skilled readers themselves, are not aware of the fact that they need to make explicit those comprehension strategies to their students • Although teachers spoke of ‘teaching’ comprehension skills, actually what they referred to was ‘exercising’ them. • Even though teacher/student interactions are there, most of them are ‘surface interaction’ characterized by rapid exchange of questions and answers.

5. 1. Rationale - Jerome Bruner’s four models of pedagogy2. Question Design- Bloom’s Taxonomy of questions3. Tactics in questioning andresponding - classroom application Today’s focus

6. Jerome Bruner’s four models of pedagogyDo we think our children/students …. • asimitative learners? • aslearning from didactic experiences? • asthinkers? • asknowledge builders? THE CULTURE OF EDUCATIONBy Jerome BrunerHarvard Univ. Press, 1996

7. The first views the student as an imitative learner and focuses on passing on skills and "know-how" through example and demonstrative action.

8. The second views students as learning from didactic exposure. It is based on the idea that learners should be presented with facts, principles, and rules of action which are to be learned, remembered, and then applied.

9. The third sees children as thinkers and focuses on the development of inter-subjective interchange. This model revolves around how the child makes sense of his or her world. It stresses the value of discussion and collaboration.

10. The fourth model views children as knowledgeable and stresses the management of "objective" knowledge. This perspective holds that teaching should help children grasp the distinction between personal knowledge, on the one hand, and "what is taken to be known" by the culture, on the other.

11. Bruner stresses that …. • Modern pedagogy is moving increasingly to the view that the child should be aware of his or her own thought processes (models three and four) and that achieving skills and accumulating knowledge (models one and two) are not enough. • "What is needed," Bruner stresses, "is that the four perspectives be fused into some congruent unity

12. Our belief shapes the way we provide instructions…

13. The purpose of asking questions

14. Why do we ask questions? • Spark further questions • Direct students’ thinking in a particular way. • Gain feedback from students about teaching • Help students clarify their understanding • Model questioning and thinking • Motivate students to inquire • Focus attention on a topic • Structure or guide the learning of a task • Challenge students • Reinforce learnt materials • Assess students • Revision of content • Control behavior of the class or individuals • Excite interest or curiosity • Encourage students to be actively engage in learning • Evaluation purposes • Help students make connections • Identify gaps in students’ learning

15. Question design

16. Bloom's Taxonomy Knowledge Comprehension Application Analysis Synthesis Evaluation

17. Tactics in questioning and responding Classroom application

19. Invite students to elaborate: encourages students to develop more complex contributions (e.g. “Say a little more about…”) • Echo: helps students clarify their own thinking and shows they have been listened to (e.g. “So you think that …”) • leave very open for students to guess the answer - provide space for students to think • Make a personal contribution from your own experience: encourages students to offer contributions of their own, and see identification and empathy as useful tools (e.g. “I remember …”) • Make a suggestion: encourages students to offer their own suggestion or build on teacher’s suggestion (e.g. “You could try …”) • Let students explore a topic / a word with their five senses • Explore the unfamiliar words with students (encourage them to guess the meaning)

20. Avoid spoon-feeding questions • Spoon-feeding questions give too much guidance and does not require students to develop analytic skills. Examples: "So we can say that, vegetables, grain products are healthy food. Isn't that right?" These types of questions tend to force a predetermined answer Written by Drs. Nancy Lorsch and Shirley Ronkowski, 1982. Instructional Development, University of California, Santa Barbara. Reference: "Condensed Version of the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives." In Bloom, Hastings, and Madaus (eds). Handbook on Formative and Summative Evaluation of Student Learning . 1971

21. A questioning friendly classroom is a place where: A questioning-friendly classroom is not a place where:

22. Sheer imitation, dictation of steps to be taken, mechanical drill, may give results most quickly and yet strengthen traits likely to be fatal to reflective power. The pupil is enjoined to do this ….with no knowledge of any reason except that by doing so he gets his result most speedily; his mistakes are pointed out and corrected for him; he is kept at pure repetition of certain acts till they become automatic. Later the teachers wonder why pupil reads with so little expression, and thinks with so little intelligent consideration of the terms of his problem. A drill which hardly touchesmindat all. How we think John Dewey, 2007

23. Bruner, J. (1996) The Culture of Education. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. • Bruner, J. (1990) Acts of Meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. • Bruner, J. (1960) The Process of Education. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. • http://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htm • John Dewey. (2007) How we think. Book Jungle. • Brown, G., & Wragg, E. C. (1993). Questioning. London: Routledge • Nancy Lorsch and Shirley Ronkowski. (1982). Condensed Version of the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. In Bloom, Hastings, and Madaus (eds). Instructional Development, University of California, Santa Barbara. Handbook on Formative and Summative Evaluation of Student Learning . 1971

24. Thank you