Teaching is not telling
This summer I travelled by train to various parts of the country, often enjoying the company of families on holiday. On one long distance journey, my travelling companions were a mother with her three children aged seven, five and three. At one point the train stopped outside a small station for some time and the youngest child was rather bored and cranky (the older two were occupied with colouring books). The scene outside was typically village India and the mother, whom I discovered in conversation was a primary school teacher, tried to direct the whining child’s attention to the scene outside. "Look, see the cow… see the buffalo… see the man milking the buffalo… see the goats under the tree… see the woman getting water from the well…" etc. The child expressed some interest for a while, but it wasn’t long before the whining began again — long before the train moved into the station.A common scene, but one which illustrates the typical approach to teaching in many classrooms around the country — teachers think their job is to tell their students what they believe the latter need to know. But there is another way, which can be illustrated from the train scene. The conversation between mother (teacher) and child could have gone like this (with appropriate pauses for reply and free discussion after each question): "What can you see beyond the window? Can you name those animals? Can you see a cow? What colour is it? What colour is that other animal? What is the man doing to that animal? Yes, he’s milking it — do you like milk? That’s where we get our milk from; how do you think it gets from the milkman to our house?" Such questions are more likely to engage the interest of the child and lead to an effective learning experience.
The difference is obvious. It’s all too easy, and common, for us adults (parents and teachers) to tell children what we think they need to know, rather than ask questions to help them explore and discover the world around them in a way that strengthens what they already know. Of course teachers know the difference in theory; they know about ‘child-centred learning’. But it is rarely practiced, because there is a deep rut that traps most teachers in classrooms.
Fielding and using questions appropriately is a fundamental part of a teacher’s trade, and yet it is so rarely and poorly used. Here are a few pointers to help teachers improve their use of questions.
Closed questions. They narrow the range of possible replies by requiring quick and simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers. For example, "Did you have breakfast this morning?" "Did you complete your homework?" "Did you pass your test?" Closed questions can be changed into ‘open questions’…
Open questions. They elicit fuller answers to open up discussion, as they require more than a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. For example: the very same questions can be differently framed. "What did you have for breakfast?" "How much time did it take you to finish your homework?" Open questions are preferable for classroom teaching because they often lead to ‘probing questions’…
Probing questions. These delve into a situation with the intent of eliciting greater information and detail, with the teacher able to lead the dialogue in a particular direction. So to continue with our stock sample questions: "Did you eat a healthy breakfast?" "Did anyone help you with your homework?" Probing questions can be used to good effect in the classroom and spur students to think more deeply about a subject or issue.
Hypothetical questions. Such questions encourage students to think ‘outside the box’, to apply interrogatory principles to other situations, to contemplate implications. For example: "How would you feel by lunch time if you hadn’t had a healthy breakfast?" "What would have happened if you had done your homework by yourself?" Notice the use of the conditional tense.
Reflective and summary questions. Although rarely used, such questions can be very effective to review and reinforce what has already been taught. "Did you say that you ate idlis, dosa, an egg, and two bananas for breakfast?" Such questions build teacher-student rapport and confidence, making the teaching-learning process more effective.Unspecific, undirected questions. These are questions such as: "Has everybody finished?" "Do you all understand?" "What’s the answer to 2 x 10?" Inevitably there’s a chorus of answers such as: "Yes Maam!" and "20". In the process those who haven’t finished, who don’t understand, and who didn’t know that 2 x 10 = 20 will be neglected. I wish there was a law to eradicate non-specific questions in classrooms. Their usage creates indiscipline and diminishes the effectiveness of learning.
If only teachers would acknowledge that inherent in the train scene is the key to unlock potential for learning that spans the various disciplines/subjects found in any curriculum: language (vocabulary and grammar), maths, science, social studies etc. A revolution in the approach to teaching is urgently required. Instead of telling children what we believe they need to know, we need to ask questions that will help them discover and build on what they already know, want to know, and need to know.
(John Barclay is a director of Destiny Education Mumbai Pvt Ltd)