Dylan william effective questioning techniques for elementary

At any level, in any sector, in any setting, questioning is one of the most vital and fundamental tools we have to support, assess and guide students.

Whether used at the beginning of a lesson to identify prior knowledge, throughout a session to evaluate student understanding or at the end of a session (and in the subsequent days, weeks and months) to assess knowledge retention, the questions we ask (and which students answer) is a constant focus.

All teachers are aware of this: research indicates that teachers ask as many as questions per day, and up to questions per hour.

So why then, do so many questions represent wasted opportunities? With so many questions being asked on a daily and hourly basis, why do so many questions focus on individual students, individual responses and a failure to identify the needs of the majority of students?

Mainly, this is as a result of the approach that so many teachers use – that which Dylan Wiliam calls