General Introduction

This blog is part of my Differentiation and Adaptive Teaching Knowledge Base.

I use the terms differentiation and adaptive teaching synonymously. To me, they are the same, as genuine differentiation has always involved adapting your planning and your teaching to meet the needs of the learners in front of you.

For me, differentiation is all the practical strategies, activities and techniques teachers use to personalise learning.

For ease, we can break that down into my five categories of differentiation: Activities, Questioning, Words and Writing, Things the Teacher Can Do and Things You Can Ask Learners to Do or Use.

This blog falls into the category of questioning.

Questioning that Promotes Reasoning

Reasoning is the skill that underpins most of what goes on in school.

Its importance cannot be underestimated.

A learner who can reason adroitly is likely to do well across the board.

A learner who struggles to reason is likely to find much of the curriculum harder to access.

Questions that promote reasoning are therefore good for all learners.

They encourage learners to think in a rational way and to articulate this thinking to their peers.

When posing questions to learners, consider whether the question you are asking promotes reasoning.

If it doesn’t, ask yourself whether you can alter it so that it does.

Here are some examples of questions that promote reasoning:

• Why might X be the case?
• For what reasons might X be true?
• Why might X have turned out as it did?
• What reasons do you have to support what you have just said?
• Can you give me a reason that supports your argument?

In each case, learners are asked to reason.

They are expected to consider something in the light of reason and to articulate an answer that is predicated on a rational way of thinking.

It will undoubtedly be the case that in any one class you will have learners who respond to such questions with varying levels of sophistication.

What ought to be common to all the responses though, is the presence of reasoning.

By asking questions that promote this, you can help all learners to develop their rationality – regardless of where they begin from or how adept at reasoning they presently are.

A good model to use for this type of questioning is as follows:

• Ask learners the question and tell them to think about this on their own.
• When a little time has passed, invite learners to get into pairs and to explain their answers to each other.
• Move around the classroom, listening to learners’ conversations. Step in if appropriate.
• Bring the class back together and get a range of learners to share their answers.
• Scrutinise these answers as a class (using reason to do so) and model the use of reason for your learners.

An easy way to enhance your learners’ use of reason is to provide sentence stems they can use when answering or sharing their thoughts.

For example:

• I think … because …
• My reasons for thinking this are …
• The evidence I have is …

Another option, often used with younger learners but applicable across the board, is to continually emphasise the use of the word ‘because’.

Here, you are signalling to learners that ‘because’ should be a pivot in their answers, where they switch from saying what they think (making a claim) to backing it up (giving reasons, examples or evidence).

One option is to create a ‘Because …’ card, laminate it, and stick it on the end of a length of dowl.

You can then hold this up as your ‘Because Sign’, whenever you want to remind learners of the necessity of backing up their claims with reasons, evidence and examples.

(This isn’t for everyone, but if you use it in a light-hearted way, it can be a lot of fun, memorable, and help you to achieve your goal of improved reasoning from your class.)

How does questioning that promotes reasoning help you to differentiate?

Questions that promote reasoning engage all learners.

This is because all learners possess the capacity to reason (though the extent of this may vary).

They also challenge all learners by asking them to think logically and rationally about the topic.

Through using the model, you will expose learners to a range of reasoned thinking.

This will help them to identify and absorb good practice from their peers.

Using Questions of Clarification

Clarification questions include examples like:

• What do you mean by that?
• Could you explain that in another way?
• Is there an example you could use to show what you mean?
• OK, so are you saying …?
• Can you talk me through how that would work?

These types of questions are about helping the learner make their ideas clearer and easier to understand.

They do this in two ways.

First, they elicit more information from them.

Second, they cause the learner to think about what they have said, what they are trying to say, and whether they have been sufficiently clear.

Clarification questions are thus two-part in nature.

They serve to draw more from the learner being questioned and they cause that learner to think again about their ideas.

We can see from this why it is appropriate for the teacher to use such questions.

Regardless of where the learner is at in terms of knowledge and understanding, asking questions of clarification helps them to develop, simplify and refine their ideas.

In this sense, the strategy is one that differentiates by its very nature.

It matters not where the learner is at; by asking clarifying questions the teacher will help them to advance their thinking.

Clarification brings clarity.

And that is what we want.

How do questions of clarification help you to differentiate?

Clarifying questions cause all learners, regardless of their starting points, to develop and refine their ideas.

They also cause all learners to communicate their ideas more clearly.

This results in the teacher and learner having a better understanding of what is being talked about and why.

By using questions of clarification, the teacher elicits more information.

They then have a better understanding of where their learners are at, what they are thinking, and how they are thinking.

This makes it easier for the teacher to alter their teaching so that it meets the needs of their learners.

Expecting Justification

A final strategy you can use to habituate learners into providing higher quality responses is to expect justification.

When we justify, we provide support to a claim.

In the strongest sense – and this is the one we want to promote with our learners – it involves the provision of reasons, evidence and examples.

(So, there’s considerable overlap with our first strategy.)

Let’s look briefly at why each of these can be said to give justification for a statement.

Reasons provide an explanation for why something is said to be the case.

Different reasons may appeal to different things for their explanatory power.

This may include logic, ‘fit’, prior knowledge, correlation and so on.

Not all reasons are equally valid.

Evidence provides an empirical reference point for that which has been stated.

It points to something in the world and indicates that this is support for the claim.

It represents a drawing together of the abstract and the concrete.

The latter – the evidence – is said to prove, or to go some way to proving, the former to be the case.

Examples provide specificity.

They demonstrate a particular case of a general statement.

By using an example, one makes that which is abstract clearer and easier to understand.

In addition, examples tie the abstract or general statement to the real world.

This process offers support to the claim being made because it indicates how the claim manifests itself empirically.

By asking learners to justify the claims they make, the teacher is encouraging them to use reasons, evidence and examples.

Therefore, they are encouraging them to think better and to create stronger arguments.

Examples of questions that provoke justification include:

• Why might that be true?
• What evidence do you have for that?
• Can you give me an example that proves what you have said?
• How could you convince someone what you have said is actually the case?
• How might someone try to argue against what you’ve said?

Such questions differentiate because they cause all learners, regardless of their starting position, to think about how they might construct a means of support for what they are claiming to be true.

A very able learner might be able to create a sophisticated justification; a less-able learner might come up with an argument that is not quite as persuasive.

Common to both, however, is a sustained attempt to justify what it is they have claimed to be true.

(And don’t forget, you don’t always have to ask a question to elicit justification. You can just say: Convince me!)

How does expecting justification differentiate?

Questions that ask for justification can be asked of all learners, regardless of their starting points.

Such questions cause all learners to think rationally about what they have said and to look for supporting reasons, evidence and examples.

All learners will make progress from their starting position by being encouraged to justify their claims.