3_learning benefits of classroom questions

8/2/2019 3_Learning Benefits of Classroom Questions

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Learning Benefits of Classroom Questions

By Dr. Will Thalheimer

Questions produce cognitive effects in our learners and generate learning benefits. While it

is beyond the scope of this webpage to delve into these benefits in great depth, the

following list offers a flavor of the myriad ways that questioning strategies support deepand meaningful learning. Some of these benefits are inherent to questions, while others are

possible if questions are well designed and well facilitated.

The following list of benefits is drawn from (a) the basic research on human learning, (b)

from the research literature on active learning, and (c) from the practical utilization of

active-learning classroom techniques, often in conjunction with audience response systems.

I've divided these 24 learning benefits into two sections. The first section will cover the

learning benefits that result almost inherently from the cognitive effects of questioning.

The second section will continue the list of learning benefits, but will cover the learning

benefits that are possiblethose that are leveragable if questions are appropriately utilized.

The Inherent Learning Benefits of Questions

1. Prequestions Guide Learner Attention

Prequestions improve overall learning when they are presented to learners soon before

learning events Prequestions help learners focus on the most important learning materialthey subsequently encounter.

2. Postquestions Guide Later Learner Processing

How learners approach new material is affected by previous questions. For example,Sagerman and Mayer (1987) found that learners did better on verbatim questions when

they had previously gotten verbatim questions and conceptual questions when they had

previously gotten conceptual questions. Questions then, not only have an effect on learning

events that occur immediately after the questions, but also on subsequent learning events.Because questions create habits of mind, we need to be very careful that our questions are

creating the right habits. Questions can have detrimental effects when we continually test

learners on meaningless fragments of facts, figures, and folderol.

3. Questions Provide Repetition

Repetition is arguably the most important learning factor there is. It enables learners to

remember things theyd forgotten, learn things they didnt quite get the first time around,

and strengthen and enrich what they already know. Repetition doesnt imply verbatim


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repetition. Verbatim repetitions can sometimes be valuable but theyre often boring. The

true power of repetition is realized when we use paraphrasing, examples, case studies, role-

plays, simulations, and questioning. Questions inherently provide repetitions. Consider theinstructional sequence, (a) content, (b) question, (c) discussion, (d) feedback. This

sequence provides four repetitions of the learning point. Each of these interactions prompts

the learners to engage the learning point in some manner.

4. Questions Provide Retrieval Practice

The fundamental purpose of learning is to facilitate later retrieval of the learned

information. While the term retrieval may conjure up images of simple recall, retrieval

refers more broadly to drawing information from long-term memory into working memory.Therefore, retrieval occurs when we answer a question, when we think about how to solve

a problem, when we engage in creativity, when we kick a soccer ball, when we are

involved in a conversation, and when we play music. If our goal is to facilitate later

retrieval, one of the best ways to support that retrieval is to prompt learners to retrieveinformation during learning. Practice makes perfect, and retrieval during learning not only

provides practice but it makes the information that was retrieved more accessible inmemory as well.

5. Questions Provide Learners with Feedback

Questions enable learners to get feedback on their retrieval attempts. Questions not only

enable learners to evaluate their retrieval performance, but they can be used to help learnersovercome their misconceptions and reinforce their tentative understandings. Researchers

who have reviewed research articles on feedback have concluded that feedback was very

effective in producing learning benefits. In fact, many investigators have been so sure offeedbacks effectiveness that they have simply assumed it improves learning and have gone

on to discuss other variables that affect its impact. Studies that have compared giving

feedback to not giving feedback generally have found fairly sizable improvements withfeedback.

6. Questions Provide Instructors with Feedback

Questions not only provide learners with feedback, but they provide instructors with

feedback as well. In a typical lecture, instructions get some feedback by watching the bodylanguage of learners and by listening to audience questions. This feedback tends to be quite

impoverished. Learners are hesitant to admit their confusion in large rooms of peers.

Instructors may tune out the feedback because its uncomfortable to acknowledge that theirperformance may be lacking. Body language, may tell an instructor that learners are

confused, but it cant clarify the exact nature of the confusion. Well-designed questions can

help pinpoint the comprehension issues and get all the learners involved in providing data

about their comprehension. Moreover, instructors can modify their facilitation based on the


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feedback they receive. For example, Draper and Brown (2004) talk about the benefits of

contingent teachingwhere instructors change what they teach within a particular learning

session based on learner responses to questions.

The Leveragable Learning Benefits of Questions

The list above highlighted the inherent learning benefits of questionsthe advantages that

questions almost automatically produce. The following list highlights the possible benefitsthe gains that can be leveraged depending on the design of your questions and the quality

of the work and discussions that supplement those questions. I have chosen to continue the

numbering, instead of starting anew, because I want to emphasize that questions offer

myriad ways to produce their benefits.

7. Prequestions Activate Prior Knowledge

One factor that propels learning is to help learners connect their new knowledge to what

theyve already learned. Great instructorswhether they are teachers, religious leaders,managers, or political leadersare adept at using metaphorical language to imbue a

discussion with immediate meaning. The metaphor bridges the gap between what is well

known and what is new. In the same way, we can help our learners learn by using questionsthat ask them to bring into working memory information theyve already learned.

8. Questions Can Grab Attention

Questions by their very nature force learners to pay attention. While the drone of a lecture

is more likely to keep learners in a state of daydreaming, questions prompt learners toreorient their minds to the content of the question. This has obvious learning benefits.

Without attention, there is no learning.

9. Questions Can Provide Variety

Providing learners with a variety of learning methods can create learning, attention, andmotivational advantages. Research has shown that variety helps people learn better, keeps

them attentive longer, and motivates them to feel more interest in the topic. Even repeating

concepts with paraphrased wording has advantages. The basic act of providing a questionprovides variety in comparison to lecture alone. Going beyond this basic mechanism,

questions can provide variety by utilizing different question types. Questions can focus on

the same concept but utilize different background situations. Instructors can facilitatequestions differently, asking learners to answer individually sometimes, or having them

discuss with partners, groups, or the whole class.


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10. Questions Can Make the Learning Personal

Designing your lectures and discussions to help your learners see how the material relatesto them personally has obvious value. It helps motivate the learners to pay attention and

makes it more likely that learners will relate the new learning to their long-held knowledge

structures. Even if your lectures and discussions are devoid of personal connection,questions can highlight the personal aspects of the material. By connecting the learning

material to learners personal concerns, we can also help our learners learn outside our

classrooms. Learners dont learn only in the classroom. If we can generate thinking in theclassroom that makes it likely that learners will spontaneously ponder relevant concepts

while away from the classroom, weve doubled the returns on our classroom learning

investment. In fact, weve done much more than that. When learning is personal, its much

more likely to be remembered and utilized long into the future.

11. Questions Can Provide Spaced Repetitions

Repetitions of questions that are spaced apart in time are more effective than those that are

massed together. Glover (1989b) found that repeating a test spaced by one day producedsignificantly higher retention than providing a test immediately after the material was

learned. Even in a single classroom session, waiting to space a question after covering

other unrelated material can provide substantial benefits. So for example, you mightpresent Content A, then Content B, and then provide a question regarding Content A.

Similarly, you might present Content A B C and D and then ask questions on A B C and D.

Homework and studying also provide spaced repetitions. For example, you might use a

couple questions at the end of classwithout providing the answersto spur learningoutside the classroom. You could then include those questions in the following session and

provide feedback.

12. Questions Can Highlight Boundary Conditions

Questions can be used to introduce learners to boundary conditions or test their knowledge

of contingencies. For example, fifth graders may be taught that tolerance is good, but they

also need to learn that tolerance of evil is not good. Managers can be taught to encourage

their direct reports to help in making decisions, except in cases that have safety, ethical, orlegal repercussions. Highlighting boundary conditions often brings a dose of reality to

instruction, thus engaging learners by moving beyond stale platitudes. Real life is

complicated. If we dont acknowledge this to our learners, we not only do them adisservice, we lose their respect and attention.

13. Questions Can Highlight Common Misunderstandings

Learners often come to learning experiences with nave understandings that make it

difficult for them to learn new information. Their preconceptions may bias them against the


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new paradigms they have to learn. As many master instructors have concluded, one of the

primary goals of instruction is to help learners unlearn their flawed beliefs and replace

them with more accurate knowledge structures. Question answering reveals the truth oflearners knowledge to learners and to the instructor. Such revelations enable learners to

awaken to new constructs and test newly learned constructs. At the same time, these

teachable moments provide instructors with special advantages in guiding and supportingfurther learning.

14. Questions Can Demonstrate Forgetting

Learners forget. Its an immutable law of nature. As instructors, one of our primary goals is

to ensure that our learners learn AND remember. Unfortunately, the typical learningenvironment is set up to make this difficult. First, learners are overly optimistic about their

ability to remember, so during learning events they sometimes avoid using the kind of

cognitive processing that supports long-term retention. For example, they tend to use

simple rehearsal strategies as opposed to more elaborative processing. Second, learners areoften too busy or distracted to devote enough time to learning. Third, learners who are

graded often focus on getting good grades as opposed to supporting their long-term abilityto remember. For example, they tend to cram instead of spacing their learning and practice

over time. As recent research has showed, learners who are prompted to retrieve

information from memory after a significant delaytypically over a week or morearemuch more likely afterwards to utilize cognitive processing that propels long-term

remembering. If we want our learners to remember concepts over time, we can help them

by providing them with questions well after weve moved on to different topic areas.

15. Questions Can Support Transfer to Related Situations/Topics

It is rare for knowledge learned in one topic area to be retrieved from memory when

another topic is being considered. You may have heard of this as the problem of transfer.

Even when learners are given a problem to solve that closely resembles another problemthey already solved, they very rarely use the solution to the solved problem to solve the

second problem. In current parlance, learners just dont get it unless the connections are

actually practiced or made incredibly obvious. Questions provide an obvious opportunity to

help support transfer. We can use questions to provide authentic scenarios to directlypractice transfer. We can also provide multiple questions on the same learning pointeach

utilizing a different background context.

16. Questions Can Prepare Learners for Future Decision-Making

Rarely is rote recall the primary goal of instruction. Often, we want learners to be able to

retrieve information from memory to make decisions. For example, history teachers might

want learners to remember the lessons of the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War so that

they can make better decisions about which political party to support. A biology teacher


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might want learners to remember how ecosystems work so that the learners will make

more-informed decisions about recycling, eating, and purchasing a car. A leadership trainer

might want learners to make better decisions about how to handle unstable employees. Tosupport future decision-making, questions can be used that simulate future decision-making

situations. In other words, if we give them authentic decisions to make, well better prepare

them to make future real-world decisions.

17. Questions Can Demonstrate Relevance to the Real World

Sometimes our learners arent preparing for specific future decision-making

responsibilities, so the section immediately above may not seem to apply directly. Still, to

keep learners engaged and to provide them with deep learning experiences, it may bebeneficial to provide them either with decision-making questions beyond what their futures

may hold and/or other questions that arent decision-making related but do highlight the

importance of the topic.

18. Questions Can Help Learners Identify Their Assumptions

Questions are excellent vehicles to prompt students to identify their assumptions. Socrates

used a series of questions to help pinpoint his learners misunderstandings. You can use aseries of questions or one question to do the same.

19. Questions Can Encourage Attention to Difficult Content

When faced with extremely difficult content in a classroom situation, some learners

become overwhelmed and just tune out. This can happen intentionally or automatically.Some learners will move into a state of performance anxiety that literally overloads the

limited capacity of their working memories with off-task ruminations. Others will

consciously tune out, expecting to be able to learn the material on their own outside theclassroom. In either case, valuable learning time is lost. Questions can be used in these

instances to partition the learning content into manageable chunks and to slow the flow of

the lecture to give learners an opportunity to refocus their attention on processing the

learning material.

20. Questions Can Demonstrate Learning over Time

Questions delivered in a pretest-posttest format, before and after the accompanying

content, can demonstrate for learners how much theyve learned. While this may not seemparticularly advantageousCant they see how far theyve come?learners often cant

remember their previous states of mind, so demonstrating it to them may be the only way

to convince them of their progress. This has advantages for the learners, because it

demonstrates that their learning efforts have value, making it more likely that theyll


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approach future learning tasks with a bent toward perseverance. It has advantages for

instructors as well, because it will increase learner satisfaction, instructor ratings, and will

induce further learner engagement.

21. Questions Can Provide Practice in Learning with Others

Almost all learners need to be able to work with othersand learn with others. Certainly,

in todays knowledge economy, the ability to work with others is critical to success. Thereare at least three reasons to give them practice in working with others. First, learning with

others provides people with multiple perspectives and thus a richer learning experience.

Second, learning with others usually improves individual learning outcomes. It improves

attention to the task. It creates more elaborate memory pathways. It prompts retrievalpractice to reinforce the concepts. Finally, learning with others is preparation for their real-

world futures. It helps them practice articulating their thoughts. It gives learners practice

interacting and working with others.

22. Questions Can Be Utilized to Gather Experimental Data

This benefit doesnt relate to all classrooms, but it can be quite powerful when it is

relevant. The idea is that we can actually collect data from our learners to elucidate ourtopic. For example, an instructor could prompt students to respond to a typical color-

blindness test by selecting an answer with their handsets. To begin a discussion of perfect

pitch, an instructor could ask students to listen to a musical note and ask them to select

which note it is. Gathering experimental data is particularly appropriate when the classtopics revolve around issues related to human beings, for example in courses in

psychology, perception, decision making, ethics, and political science, among many other

similar courses. A professor teaching a course on experimental psychology might replicatefamous experiments that have been done.

23. Questions Can Prompt Out-of-the-Classroom Learning Activities

The more time learners spend learning, the more they learn. The correlation isnt perfect

not all learning is created equalbut its still a strong positive correlation. Whether its acorporate classroom or high-school chemistry lab, only so much learning can take place in

the classroom. If learners can be encouraged to engage in meaningful mathemagenic

(learning-creating) processing outside the classroom, their learning outcomes will beimproved. Questions can prompt out-of-the-classroom learning in a number of ways. The

most brutish way is through grading. If learners are graded on their handset responses,

theyre more likely to prepare for classes. Note that this has to be done very carefully so asnot to stifle learning in the classroom. Well talk about this later. Weve already talked

about how personally relevant questions can spontaneously promote out-of-the-classroom

thinking related to the course content. If the questions relate to the learners real-world


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futures, cues in those future situations may remind the learners about the content they

previously learned.

24. Questions Can Promote Thinking Skills

Helping learners digest facts, learn terminology, and understand complex topics is

commendable, but not sufficient. Our learners wont be fully prepared for their futures

unless they develop thinking skillsmethods to evaluate situations, solve problems,generate options, make decisions. Questions, in conjunction with classroom facilitation and

well-designed classroom exercises, can promote such thinking skills, encouraging learners

to (a) generate multiple solutions, (b) categorize and classify, (c) discuss, summarize, and

model, (d) strategize, justify, and plan, (e) reflect and evaluate, and (f) think about thinkingand learning. Questions can also help learners (g) notice the most critical factors in a

chaotic swarm of stimuli, (h) utilize hypothesis generation tactics, (i) simplify complexity

to within workable boundaries, (j) recognize when a proposed solution has been fully

vetted, and (k), persevere in learning in the face of obstacles, etc.

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