1. The document discusses effective questioning techniques to encourage learner progress, including assessing current strategies, understanding educational theory, and creating tailored strategies. 2. Five recommended questioning strategies are described: pose-pause-pounce-bounce, Socratic questioning, "if this is the answer, what is the question?", the picture round, and the 5 whys. 3. Socratic questioning involves 6 steps to create critical thinking by challenging assumptions, requiring evidence, considering other perspectives, examining consequences, and questioning the question. The 5 whys technique helps understand root causes of problems by repeatedly asking why.

1. Questioning Techniques
Paul Redford

2. Aim: Explore effective questioning
strategies to encourage and evidence
progress
Objectives:
1. Assess what works with your learners and
why?
2. Understand some supporting educational
theory and explore some suggested ideas
3. Apply knowledge of your own learners and
the supporting theory to create tailored
strategies

3. Why do we use questioning?
Positives for learners Positives for us!
Quick warm up:

4. Objective 1
• Ask yourself the following:
1. Which questioning strategies do you
currently employ with your learners?
2. Why do these strategies suit/work with your
learners?

5. Objective 2 “Gimme 5”
A selection of 5 recommended strategies
to try…
1. Pose-pause-pounce- bounce
2. Socratic questioning
3. “If this is the answer, what is the question?”
4. The picture round
5. The 5 why’s?

6. Pose-pause-pounce-bounce
Dylan Williams
4 stages
1. Pose a question (open if possible) to the whole group,
emphasising they must silently reflect individually and no hands
up!
2. Pause for as long as you can bear it (at least 5 sec) so all can
process the question fully
3. Pounce on student A to answer the question, do not show you
agree or disagree
4. Bounce the question to student B, to either give their opinion on
student A’s answer or add further information. Student C can then
give an explanation as to whether A and/or B is correct and why?
• The process can continue for as long as you choose, or you can pose
a secondary question and repeat the process etc…

7. Why give it a go…
• Simple to implement
• Lots of evidence to suggest greater “pause” time
leads to higher quality of responses, and
increased confidence of learners when
responding
• “bounce” asks learners to constructively build
upon the ideas of another, giving us formative
assessment time

8. Socratic Questioning
6 steps to create critical thinking and structure your
questions
1. Learners clarify their thinking “Why do you say that?”
“Could you explain that further ?”
2. Challenge their assumptions “Is this always the case?”
3. Evidence their suggestions “How do we know this?”
“Is there any reason to doubt this?
4. Other perspectives “What is the counter argument?
“Does anybody see this another way?”
5. Consequences “But if that happened, what else would
result?”
“How does … affect …?”
6. Question the question “Why do you think I asked that question?”
“Why was that question important?”

9. Why give it a go…
• Helps students to think critically by focusing
explicitly on the process of thinking.
• Structured questioning, forces learners to
slow down and examine their own thinking
processes (i.e., reflective thinking allowing
greater analysis and evaluation to take place.)

10. “If this is the answer…what is the
question” – Mock the Week
• Reversing the question, and asking learners to
relate the answer to the content covered in the
lesson, for example…
• Answer = 3.14159265358
• Question = What is the value of pi?
• Answer = 1863
• Question = When was the FA formed?

11. Why give it a go…
• Good way to start thinking about a topic at the beginning of
a lesson or to ask students to reflect upon learning from a
previous lesson.
Certain phrases could be used to extract multiple meanings
e.g.
- Answer = ‘Peer to peer’ where the students had been
learning about different types of networks in IT.
- Question =“what type of networking involves computers
being connected directly together?”
- Could also apply to “collaborative learning strategy” or “the
practice of lending money to unrelated individuals” etc…

12. Picture round
i.e. Question of Sport
• Split the class into two and ask for two volunteers
(team captains).
• Give the two volunteers key images/words from the
lesson to describe to the class without saying the
words. Only their team can contribute. Most points
wins.
• Learners are effectively self checking their peers with
very minimal input from teacher, leaving maximum
time for observational analysis of progress

13. Why give it a go…
• Very engaging and fun way of including all
learners
• Learners are being assessed collaboratively,
and will want to give good information to win
points – appeals to competitive learners
• Gives lots of time for formative assessment of
participation and progress made.

14. The 5 why’s?
• Borrowed from Toyota’s "go and see" philosophy,
meaning that decisions are based upon an in-depth
understanding.
• Useful to understand the root cause of a problem
• E.g.
Why did your coaching session not go so
well?
Because I rushed my drills
Why did you rush your drills? Because I was running out of time
Why were you running out of time? Because I hadn't planned thoroughly
enough
Why hadn't you planned thoroughly
enough?
Because I am late on another assignment?
Why are you late on another assignment? Because I didn’t understand and it was too
late to ask
How can we solve this problem? Make sure I plan ahead, ask questions,
and keep up to date

15. Why give it a go…
• Useful for troubleshooting, quality
improvement and problem solving
• Can help lead learners from multiple to a
single track of enquiry in topics where there
could be a range of causes and effects.

16. Objective 3
Pick one of the techniques suggested and place
in a scenario/context that you might now try
with your learners.
1. How might you run this?
2. Why do you think this will work?

17. What have we achieved today?
• Objectives:
• Assess what works with your learners and
why?
• Understand some supporting educational
theory and explore some suggested ideas
• Apply knowledge of your own learners
and the supporting theory to create
tailored strategies