Using questions to challenge, probe and provoke (and how that can swiftly change the dynamic in your classroom)

Questions do things. They have more power than most statements. They cause people to act.

Here we will look at four specific things that questions can do and that are of particular use in the classroom.

Questions That (can) Change Thinking

The sentence is qualified by the insertion of ‘(can)’ because it would be remiss to suggest that any question has the power to change someone else’s thinking.

To assert otherwise would be to pre-determine the power of a string of text, taking no account of the individual to whom it is being asked.

Given as how questions are by their nature reciprocal, we cannot conceive of them as acting unilaterally on a person’s mind.

They have the power to elicit a response – but this is still only a power conferred rather than an absolute power (someone could ignore the question or remain mute).

Therefore, no question can, definitively, change someone else’s thinking.

Many questions, however, have the potential to do so.

In the classroom, opportunities arise where a well-timed and well-conceived question can cause students to look differently at that which they think they know or understand. Here are two examples to demonstrate.

Example One

Student: There is no doubt in my mind that the sun will rise tomorrow. It has risen every other day I have been alive, so why shouldn’t it rise tomorrow?
Teacher: What problems might arise if you used that same logic in all areas of your life? What are the consequences for your lack of doubt concerning whether the sun will rise?

Example Two

Student: There is no way World War Two could have been avoided. Europe had to act to stop Hitler. It would not have been possible to avoid starting a war. Appeasement was clearly a failure, and the only option left was to react militarily to what Germany was doing.
Teacher: You are suggesting that there was no way World War Two could have been avoided?
Student: Yes.
Teacher: And you are basing that on the fact that appeasement had failed, that Hitler had to be stopped, and that military action was the only viable option?
Student: Yes.
Teacher: If the terms of the Treaty of Versailles had been different, would the war have happened?

It is good to look for opportunities such as these, where a well-placed and well-considered question can open new vistas of thought for students.

In these two examples, pupils are being invited down different paths by the teacher.

The questions they are faced with shine a light on areas of thinking that their initial comments did not take into account.

The questions are tools the teacher is using to further learning.

Challenging Questions

We may interpret the word ‘challenging’ in two ways.

First, in the sense of challenging what students have said. Second, in the sense of challenging students to think differently. We will look at each approach in turn.

Challenging what students have said involves asking them to justify, clarify or explain their comments.

Here are some examples:

Student 1: The best thing about the holidays is getting a lie-in.
Teacher 1: Why is that the best thing about the holidays?

Student 2: I don’t think so, no.
Teacher 2: Can you explain what you mean by that?

Student 3: If I have to choose then I’ll go for red.
Teacher 3: Just to clarify, have you chosen red at random because you have to choose something, or have you chosen red because you genuinely think it is better than the other options?

The key point here is that the teachers’ questions cause students to think more deeply about what they have said.

There is an indication that what has been articulated is incomplete or in need of development.

The questions invite pupils to do something further with their original statements.

Challenging students to think differently involves asking questions that are designed to push their thinking. In this sense, the ‘differently’ can be interpreted in the following ways:

To think differently from how they have been thinking up to the present point in time.
To think differently from how they usually think.
To think differently about the material in question.
To use different skills or processes to consider the material in question from an alternative perspective.
To think in a manner beyond that which has been encouraged up to the present point in time.

Questions that exemplify these categories come in different forms.

Here are a range of examples, some of which could be attributed to one of the categories, some of which could fit into multiple categories:

How might your answer be different if democracy no longer existed?
What assumptions or premises does your answer rely on?
Why might someone interpret democracy as a threat?
If animals had democracy, how might the world be different?
Is democracy real? How do you know?
Where is democracy? Can you put your finger on it – literally?
What is democracy like?
How might you develop your essay so that it gets to the core of the issue?
For what reasons might a person find democracy problematic?
Under what circumstances would you accept a suspension of democracy? Why?

Probing Questions

Probing questions are good for making pupils’ thinking explicit.

They can be used by the teacher to elicit information concerning what students understand, know and think, as well as the reasons behind this.

When asking such questions, better results tend to arise if the teacher maintains a gentle, exploratory approach.

The converse of this – direct, assertive questioning – sometimes stymies student responses and discourages pupils from talking freely and at length (and this is the type of talk we want if we are probing, because more information is presented, and we are more likely to find out things that we can use to inform our teaching).

Here are some examples of probing questions:

What do you mean by that?
What you just said, could you expand on that?
How might that play out?
For what reason?
Could you give me an example of that?
What other examples might there be?
What has led you to think that?
How did you come to think that?
What else do you think about X?
How have you come to that conclusion?

You will notice from the examples that probing questions cause students to think more deeply about the matter in hand. This is because they are being asked to develop that which they have already articulated.

This means, necessarily, that they will have to go deeper.

Should they not do so, this will be because they are not able to do so, because they are deliberately avoiding doing so, or because they have not understood what is being asked of them.

Each point has its own remedy.

Provocative Questions

If Marx was right, doesn’t that mean that we are all guilty of exploitation?
Why shouldn’t the world be unfair?
Wouldn’t society be better if pets were put down before they got to a certain age?

The purpose behind provocative questions is to stimulate pupils’ thinking.

They motivate by engaging the emotions, turning commonly held positions upside-down, staking claims, presenting the world in a different or unusual light and challenging assumptions or presuppositions.

You must be careful with the use of provocative questions – a little time should be set aside to think about exactly what they might provoke.

You should also consider the sensitivities of your students.

The purpose of provocative questions is to stimulate pupil thinking, not to create discord or conflict (though intellectual discord is often desirable as the first step to greater understanding).