Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/questions-as-a-technique-for-scaffolding-childrens-learning/5017951/
Teachers can make a difference in children’s learning if they provide opportunities for children to engage meaningfully in the learning process. One way to do this is to formulate and ask high-level, open-ended questions to children. We need to revisit the types of questions we ask children and how we structure questioning episodes so that children are given equal opportunities to participate in the process of learning.Questioning as a teaching technique
Questioning is one of the most common pedagogical techniques, but it is not perceived as a teaching technique in early childhood classrooms. Previous researchers have documented that teachers spent most of their classroom instruction time asking questions to students. This implies that teachers control the questioning process and, therefore, the types of questions that are asked. Teachers’ facilitation of questioning, therefore, has a tremendous impact on children’s learning and achievement. Children come to believe that teachers’ questions are the clues about what is important to learn. You see, the approach that teachers use in processing the questioning episodes determines what children learn and how much (Walsh & Sattes, 2005).
Today we view the process of learning as a largely social activity that involves the teacher offering more opportunities for children to engage ...