Asking the Right Questions

So much of teaching is done through providing direct instruction. But...there are better ways for students to learn. One way is through scaffolding, more specifically, by asking the right questions. What are the "right" questions? The questions that get children thinking about what they've observed, learned, or wonder about an activity they've done.

Here are some examples:

• What was your favorite part of this experiment?
• What did you learn that you didn't know before doing this experiment?
• If you were to do this experiment again, what would you change?
• What questions do you still have?

Questions need to be open-ended. They need to cause the student to reflect on the activity, not regurgitate information presented by the teacher. We need to encourage students to think outside the box and act "as if" they are scientists. And...they need to write it down.