Hooked On Questioning How the Teacher-Librarian Can Change Questioning Practices In Their Schools

Abstract

Questions are an essential tool used in all teaching situations. This paper summaries current research on the best ways to ask questions and suggests how teacher-librarians can use this knowledge to guide their teaching faculties towards more effective classroom practice. It provides a guide for planning questions to incorporate a range of thinking from the cognitive, creative, and affective domains and gives practical examples of the ways this might be achieved. Essential questions are briefly discussed and the need to support and encourage student questioning is demonstrated. Determined to bring about change, the teacher-librarians used videos, Power Point, web quests, Inspiration, and the school intranet in alerting their staff to the teaching and learning opportunities afforded by good questions. How this was does and the progress and pitfalls of their endeavours are outlined.