Questioning
"Enjoy the journey of learning and try to use it to improve your relationship with your kids, be flexible."
Wolsey Hall parent
Open-ended questions
Effective questioning can really help your child think more deeply about their learning. Often in life we use closed questions which can be answered with the one-word answers, like yes or no. Asking open questions helps us to learn more about our child’s thinking and encourages them to think more about their reasoning.
Open-ended questions and prompts:
- Tell me about...
- Why do you think..?
- How do you know..?
- How did you..?
- What happened when..?
- What else can you do with..?
- What would happen if..?
- How might you use..?
- I wonder if..?
WATCH - Open-ended questioning example (YouTube)
Links to an external site.
Follow up to the video above (audio clip):
Thinking time
Thinking time for children is incredibly important. When we ask questions we are keen to receive an answer to our questions, and silence can seem like our child does not understand the question, or does not know the answer. It is human nature to jump in with a different question or provide the answer when this happens. Make sure you give your child enough thinking time when you ask a question - try waiting 7 seconds or so when you ask a question if your child doesn't answer straight away. This provides time for your child to process what you are asking, think it through, and form a reply. If after this time your child still is unsure how to answer, try asking the question again in a different way, or provide a clue to the answer you are looking for.