Transcript Answering Questions

Questions & Answers
or
How to keep an open forum…
Gateway Engineering Education Coalition
Topics
How to ask questions
How to elicit questions
How to answer questions
How to recover from questions you
can’t answer
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Asking Questions
Guideline #1:
Questions should be formed to give
students a framework for what is
expected in an answer.
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Asking Questions
For example…the question below is
posed without a sufficient framework:
“George Bush referred to Ronald
Reagan’s economic plan as what
economics?”
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Asking Questions
Now…that same question posed within a
more complete framework:
“George Bush felt Reagan’s economic
plan was more witchcraft than realistic
plan. What name did Bush give to
Reagan’s plan?”
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Asking Questions
Guideline #2:
Give students a chance to answer the
questions you pose, especially those
you think are “easy”. A good guideline
is to wait 10 seconds.
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Asking Questions
For example, rather than saying…
“What is the voltage across this
component?”
(slight pause)
“We can easily see that it’s five volts.”
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Asking Questions
You may want want to try…
“What is the voltage across this
component?”
And then wait for a response…
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Asking Questions
If no answer is forthcoming, consider
asking…
“How could we determine the voltage?”
Or even calling on someone directly
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Asking Questions
This may also be the time that you ask
the students to work with a neighbor to
get the answer and then ask the
question again. This allows the
students to say “We determined the
answer was ……” This takes the
burden off the individual student.
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Asking Questions
Remember…
 Don’t be afraid of pauses in your
lecture when you ask questions.
 When necessary, call on students
but you may want to give them an
opportunity to work in pairs or threes
to get the response.
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Eliciting Questions
Guideline #3:
When eliciting questions from your class,
phrase your requests as though
questions are expected.
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Eliciting Questions
For example, if you say…
“Are there any questions?”
OR
“Does anyone have any questions?”
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Eliciting Questions
Then…
You intimate that you aren’t expecting
questions and students will be less
likely to speak up.
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Eliciting Questions
You may want to rephrase your request to
make it clear that questions are
expected.
For example:
“What questions do you have?”
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Answering Questions
Guideline #4:
Helping students arrive at answers on
their own (by way of your prompting)
helps them learn and remember better
and results in a deeper understanding
of the answer.
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Answering Questions
For example, if asked…
“How many volts is this battery?”
Rather than simply replying…
“1.5 Volts”
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Answering Questions
You might want to suggest…
“One way to determine the voltage is to
measure it with a voltmeter. In addition,
the voltage should be listed on the side
of the battery. You can verify the listed
voltage against the voltmeter
measurement.”
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Lack of Answer Recovery
Guideline #5:
Since you can’t know the answer to every
question, maintain the pace of the class
by considering the question and
responding in a timely fashion.
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Lack of Answer Recovery
For example, when asked…
“Why are there no letters on the
‘1’ digit on the phone?”
Rather than saying….
“Uhhh… I don’t know. Uhh….
Uhh….”
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Lack of Answer Recovery
Try using one of the techniques below:
•
•
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“I don’t know, but I’ll find out and get
back to you.”
“Let me think about that a moment.”
Offer the question to the other
students. With good students, you will
find that one may have the correct
answer which you will recognize.
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Summarizing
Frame your questions to better prompt students.
Wait for the answer. Don’t be afraid of silence.
Consider small groups doing Think-ShareCompare if individuals are not responding.
Ask for questions in a manner that makes it clear
that questions are expected.
Help students reason an answer rather than just
handing the answer to them.
Don’t freeze when you don’t know an answer to a
student question; give a definitive answer even if
it’s that you don’t know.
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