Teacher’s job is not only to teach their lessons but also need to make sure that their students understand what they have taught properly. To ensure that students understand the taught concept properly, you must teach students to formulate effective questions as much as possible. This will not only clear their doubts but also lead to a healthy discussion in the classroom, which promotes every student’s learning.

If you are wondering, how you can encourage your students to ask as many doubts and questions for better understanding, then we have got you covered. In this blog post, we will be sharing some effective strategies to encourage your students to ask good questions which improves better understanding of every student in the classroom.

Importance of Asking Quality Questions During Class

Let’s get to know how to teach students to ask quality questions can improve both teacher’s and student’s experience in the classroom:

• Asking questions in the classroom motivates both students and teachers to approach any topic with motivation and curiosity.
• Encouraging students to ask questions also encourages two-way communication with the teacher.
• It helps teachers to understand where student’s need extra focus and attention to understand the topic properly.

• Many students might have doubts in their mind but get nervous to ask, even if one student asks questions then it could serve and clear doubts of the whole class.
• Students can get into a discussion about the topic or concept and learn from each other.

Strategies To Encourage To Ask Quality Questions in Classroom 

Now, you know about the importance of encouraging students to ask questions. Let’s get to know how you can help your students to ask quality questions with confidence. 

Create a Non-Judgemental Classroom

Most of the time, students do have plenty of doubts in their minds but they feel nervous and anxious that they will get judged for not having enough knowledge. As a responsible teacher, let your students know that they can ask any of their doubts and you and even the students will help each other to clear it without any judgment.

Let your students know that it’s a progressive sign that they are asking questions, it shows they are willing to learn and understand the concept deeply.

Teach Students To Ask Both Open & Ended Questions

Source: medium.com

Teaching students to ask quality questions and encouraging them to ask them when the time comes, both are equally important. Teaching your students to ask “Open-ended Questions” will force students to use their critical thinking skills because it’s not a “Yes” or “No” question, but it’s a meaningful question that leads to two-way discussion.

On the other hand, “Close-ended Questions” is generally a one-word answer, which generally doesn’t require further explanation or discussion. For example, you are teaching History, and one student asked Who’s the first Prime Minister of India? – Close Ended Question.And, one student asked- How did Jawaharlal Nehru become the first Prime Minister of India? – Open-ended question.

Slow Down Class Pace

Most of the time, teachers always focus on completing the syllabus on time, which leads to completing every topic in a hurry. This makes the learning experience more difficult for students because they get overwhelmed with the topic content and don’t even know what to ask from the teacher for clarity. So, whenever you are teaching any complex topics or any topics in general try not to rush it and give ample opportunity to ask their doubts and questions for their better understanding.

Provide Opportunities to Formulate & Asking Questions

Even after putting effort to teach students to formulate effective questions, they might feel hesitant to ask questions in front of everyone in the classroom. To normalize asking questions, you can assign them tasks like- they have to create a list of questions about the topic which they have learners recently.  They can either ask teachers or their peers which encourages further discussion.

Avoid Using “Do You have any Doubts?” Like Phrases

Using these general kinds of phrases after the topic ends mostly discourages students from asking their doubts even if the motive of the phrase is students should ask their queries to the teacher.

However, you can use some creativity to encourage students to ask their questions like-

I know the concept of division might be tough initially, shall we go through any particular point one more time?

Appraise Them For Asking Questions

If any student shows courage to ask their question to you about any topic, then don’t forget to appreciate them. Tell them sentences like- I’m glad you asked this question, Aditya. This will also encourage other students to ask their questions in front of the whole classroom without any hesitation.

Teach Students to Formulate Effective Questions

Whenever a teacher teaches any topic, it’s quite natural that student’s might have several doubts in their mind which they want to ask but they don’t because of nervousness or hesitation. However, with the above-mentioned strategies you can encourage tour students to ask quality questions which significantly improve the understanding level of every student in the classroom.

If you want to learn more creative and effective strategies to improve the learning experience of teachers, then consider pursuing courses like an online teacher training course in Mumbai, where you will get guidance from top expert trainers from the education industry.