Questioning Techniques in Primary Science/Document

From OER in Education

TE0046 - Questioning techniques in Primary Science

Different types of questions

Type of question Pupil response Examples
Knowledge Recalling facts, observations, meanings Who? What? Where? When? Why? What does the word mean?
Comprehension Summing up the main ideas, making connections, giving reasons, giving descriptions What happened in our experiment? What do you notice? Does this remind you of anything? Why do you think this…happened? What’s the main idea here?
Application Applying techniques and rules to solve problems and to reach a desired outcome What do you want to find out? You want to find out…so where are you going to start? You want to find out…so what have you tried? You want to find out…

so what are you thinking of doing next?

Analysis Identifying causes or motives.
Making inferences.
Finding evidences to support theories. 		Why did… happened? If you did… what do you think would happen? You think… can you test to see if it is true? What were you surprised about? What did you think when that happened?
Synthesis Finding methods to solve problems.
Making predictions.
Producing original ideas, writing or artefacts 		How can we solve…? How can we improve…? What will happen (now that…)? What do you predict would happen if…? What would you like to happen?
Evaluation Giving opinions about issues. Judging the validity of ideas. Judging whether a method or solution could be improved. Judging whether something fits the purpose. Aesthetic judgements Do you agree? Do you think that it is right to…? What is your opinion about…? Would it be better to do it another way? Does that work?Does that solve the problem completely? Do you like the look (or sound…) of that? How do you feel about…?

Questioning Techniques

Questioning a group:

  • Question – pause – name.
  • Don’t allow calling out.
  • Random distribution of questions.
  • Avoid indicating who must answer until everyone has had the time to think.

Dealing with questions:

  • Accept at any time.
  • Treat as of equal importance.
  • Deal with relevant ones immediately and others later, don’t forget.
  • If you don’t know the answer: don’t bluff, say you will find out, look it up and tell them later.

Questions to avoid:

  • Leading: compare ‘isn’t such and such the best way to do it?’ to ‘is that the best way or can you suggest any other?’
  • Built-in answers: ‘5 per cent of 23 is 1.15, isn’t it?’
  • Multiple: ‘So what’s the next stage… What would you do next, what apparatus would you use?’
  • Read my mind: do you want their ideas or for them to guess yours?
  • Complex: match language, etc. to pupil’s level. Plan how, why and when to expand vocabulary.
  • Vague: the pupil should know exactly what you are asking.
  • Trick: this is the sort of question that most people usually get wrong.

Handling answers:

  • Take one at a time.
  • Welcome all the answers (within reason).
  • Take care not to embarrass anyone who gives a wrong answer.
  • Resolving contradictions can be good learning experiences. Build on answers.

Some common errors in questioning

  • Asking too many questions at once.
  • Asking a question and answering it yourself.
  • Asking questions only to the brightest or most likeable.
  • Asking a difficult question too early.
  • Asking irrelevant questions.
  • Always asking the same types of questions.
  • Not using probing questions.
  • Not giving pupils time to think.
  • Not correcting wrong answers.
  • Ignoring answers.
  • Failing to see implications of answers.
  • Failing to build on answers.

Questions to ask children as they are working

In the initial stage of an investigation you might ask:

  • What is your investigation about?
  • What do you already think about this?
  • What do you think will happen?
  • Why do think this will happen?
  • What things will you change while you are doing the investigation?
  • What will you need to keep the same?
  • How will you make it a fair test?

During the investigation:

  • What are you going to measure?
  • What will you use to make the measurements?
  • How often will you take measurements?

Productive Questions in Science


Observation questions
For example: Have you seen that…? What do you notice?

Children often respond with what and why questions: What is it? Why does it do it?

Understanding questions
For example: How does this…make this… happen?

Children are invited to explain what is happening. The teacher will need to listen carefully to the explanation and encourage/guide the investigation.

Measuring and counting questions
For example: How many? How long? How often?

Children should be encouraged to take careful measurements.

Comparison questions
For example: Is it longer than…? Is it stronger than…? Is it heavier than…?

These questions can help to encourage closer observations.

In how many ways are… the same? In how many ways are they different?

Action questions
For example: What happens when…?

Children should be encouraged to predict the outcome.

Review questions
These ask children to stop and re-think, to review ideas and justify actions.

For example: Why do you think it went so fast?Is this the best place to try it?Why did you use that kind of material?

These questions are important in helping to avoid "blind alleys”

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