GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF GOOD QUESTIONS - TEACHING PRACTICE GUIDE



Questions should be relevant to the topic under discussion. The implication is that they should be part and parcel of the lesson and should stress the main points of the topic. Good questions have definite purpose and should be prepared by teachers in advance.
ii.   Good questions should challenge thinking. That is, they should stimulate pupils’ thinking and enable them solve some problems. Some good questions present controversial issues and motivate pupils to think deeply about them and marshal out salient points to convince the audience in which ever perspective they view the issues.

iii. Good questions should be clear, simple and easily understood. It is therefore the teacher’s duty to make questions he asks in the class free from being ambiguous.
iv.  Good questions should elicit the kind of responses that will contribute to the progress of the lesson.
v.   Good questions should help to make pupils actually involved in the lesson. Infact pupils take much delight in seeing that they are required to contribute their own quota towards the progress and success of the lesson in an atmosphere of cordiality and belongingness.
vi.  Good questions must be positive and creative and should always be aimed at developing pupils’ ability to think out facts, understand somethings and solve problems.
vii.      Good questions should be answerable. Good questions have great educational value when they are within the range of pupils knowledge and understanding (experience). It has been observed that questions that are beyond pupils’ knowledge and understanding discourage the pupils and render them in effective.
viii.     Good questions should be patiently gradually and orderly asked so that pupils should not only easily understand them but also have enough time to think and give out appropriate answers. Usually good questions are asked to serve the following two main purposes
(a) to find out whether the class has done the work and has acquired the required skills expected
(b) to expose the difficulties encountered while the class work or lesson is going on.     
      Information obtained from the above should undoubtedly guide the teacher in deciding how best to help pupils gain knowledge and understanding.
ix.  On no account should questions serve as punishment
x.   Good questions must be civil. Harsh and militant tone in questioning pupils must be strictly avoided because they make pupils stupid and hostile and unwilling to co-operate with the teachers.
xi.  Good questions must be directed to the whole class and not to a few presumably clever, anger or over zealous pupils. Teachers are expected to finish asking their questions orderly and patiently before pointing at pupils to answer them, the distribution of questions must be equitable and totally devoid of cheating. It is a nice policy or method to call children by their names to answer the questions asked.  
xii.      Good questions must be audible and therefore must be heard by all the pupils in the class without exception. The questions are meant for all the pupils. Questions should not be asked when the class is very noisy.
xiii.     Questions need not be repeated so that continued attention of the whole class should be guaranteed. Continued attention of the whole class is one of the greatest values of good class control. To repeat questions is to destroy that value. Questions can only be repeated if pupils are hard of hearing or if there is an intervening unusual or sudden disturbance in the class.
xiv.     Good questions make lessons lively and ensure active participation in the lesson by the pupils. Good questions are therefore, since qua non in teaching/ learning situations.

Closure                                             
      Closure is the last skill in micro-teaching exercise or training. Closure is the skill that is concerned with bringing the lesson to an end. To bring the lesson to an end the teacher summarizes the major points of the lesson. Closure skill can take various forms or shapes such as:
a.   Closure by questioning pupils on the major points of the lesson.
b.   Closure by giving the pupils exercises or problems on the work done for the necessary solution.
c.   Closure by discussion of the most salient points found in he lesson or closure by dramatization.
d.   Closure by recapitulating, revising or reviewing the lesson.
e.   Closure by giving pupils assignments.
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