I wanted to talk about questioning again. I have previously written an article about how questioning can be used to support reading development. This post will discuss how you can use questioning to support mathematical development. Questioning is a high impact teaching strategy (Department of Education and Training, 2019) which teachers use in their everyday practice to extend students. You too can use questioning to support your children to extend themselves through their remote learning programs. Let us now discuss three ways that you can use questioning to help your children learn.
Firstly, you can ask them reflective questions. When playing mathematical games or solving mathematical questions there are often many viable strategies available for use. Questioning can support children to reflect upon and evaluate how effective their strategies are. Thus, you could ask your children “what strategy are you using and can you think of any strategy that may be more effective?”
Secondly, you can use questioning to check for understanding. Being able to use mathematical understanding to justify an answer is an indicator of genuine comprehension. Personally, I really enjoy asking grade sixes the following question because it often results in interesting discussions. “Let’s just say that I did not believe you. How could you prove that you are right and that I am wrong?”
Finally, wondering questions can promote youth to develop an interest in mathematics. Questions like I wonder what the biggest number is? Can encourage students to want to investigate and think about mathematics. Ultimately, if we can make mathematics engaging for youth they are more likely to develop.
Reference List
Department of Education and Training. (2019). High impact
teaching strategies: Excellence in teaching and learning.
https://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/school/teachers/support/high-impact-teaching-strategies.pdf