Encouraging Students to Ask Questions

Do you sometimes struggle with encouraging students to ask questions?

Last semester, I tried an experiment. I intentionally used two different types of wording to motivate students to ask questions:

Wording 1: "Any questions?"

Wording 2: "What questions do you have?"

I discovered that "What questions do you have?" consistently generated student questions. "Any questions?" elicited little, if any, student response.

Remember to wait at least 3–10 seconds to allow students to think of a question to ask.

And do let us know if you find "What questions do you have?" to be an effective technique to generate student questions!

Resources:

• The Right Question Institute. Accessed 11/19/2015 at http://rightquestion.org/

To follow up on any of these ideas, please contact me at fglazer@nyit.edu. This Weekly Teaching Note was adapted from a contribution to the Teaching and Learning Writing Consortium hosted at Western Kentucky University and organized by Seneca College and New York Institute of Technology.

Contributor:
Lori Schroeder, Ph.D
Associate Director
Center for Faculty Development
Metropolitan State University
St. Paul, Minnesota
lori.schroeder@metrostate.edu