Questioning Skills in Communication
Children are extremely curious: they want to comprehend the world around them, how it works, where it originated from, and ways to interact with it. Questioning and inquiry lie at the root of all learning as well as innovations made by human beings. Questioning skills in communication need to be encouraged in students by their teachers.
Here is why:
1: Questions Do Away with the Classroom’s Monotony
What is the purpose of a classroom where the teacher is the sole person who is talking? Questions are a surefire icebreaker, regardless of whether asked by the student or teacher. If you ask the students a specific question, then you will properly know if what you have been teaching for the past 30 minutes or so has been understood or not. If students ask questions, then you will surely know that they have been giving the topic taught some serious thought. Questioning also enhances the students’ verbal communication skills. International school in Mumbai , such as Aditya Birla World Academy, gives unrivalled importance to enhancing the students’ verbal skills through the medium of questions.
2: Questions Foster Additional Questions
Irrespective of who is asking the questions (be it a teacher or a student), one question leads to the development of another. On some occasions, these questions may lead to the topic that is scheduled for discussion, which is no doubt a good phenomenon. On some other occasions, they may lead to your students understanding and learning some facts that they never knew before. Either way you look at it, there is no harm in questioning . If, as a teacher, you feel that certain questions are beyond the scope of the topic being taught, you can always put those questions on hold and eventually answer them at the end of the class. The best international school in Mumbai , Aditya Birla World Academy, promotes the importance of communication skills for students by thoroughly supporting the student’s initiative of asking questions.
3: They Make a Child Think
If you wish to know how much of the lessons your students have understood thus far, instead of asking questions that elicit a mere “yes” or “no,” try posing questions to them and then wait for a couple of minutes. After you see that their minds are working hard, you can surely call on a student to answer a specific question. In this way, every student has thought of an answer, even if they did not get a chance to formally answer. This is a successful strategy because the students are surely putting some effort into coming up with an answer.
4: They Help Students Learn
Questioning skills in communication should always be given an impetus because questions and learning are mutually tied. Learning that occurs sans any questions being asked is not true learning, but merely information being sent across. When a student poses questions, it is because they are thoroughly interested in knowing more about a specific topic. This pursuit of knowledge, too, enhances the skills of questioning. Posing a question is the student’s way of developing indispensable abilities, such as decision-making, logical thinking, and complex thinking. When a student asks questions, they are successfully thinking way beyond the content present in the textbooks. When teachers pose questions to students, they are stimulating the latter’s interest in the text, thereby encouraging them to effectively learn.
5: Questioning Increases a Student’s Engagement with the Lessons
Teaching is never a one-way street where teachers talk, and students listen to them passively. A competent teacher surely knows that effective learning takes place when both (the student and the teacher) are participating in the lesson actively. Asking questions underlines the importance of communication skills for students. After all, communication skills for students are indispensable. Posing the right questions increases student engagement. When teachers pose questions to students, the latter may not be right all the time, but they are not merely listening passively.
6: Questions are a True Sign of Interest
Students must be taught the skills of questioning. On some occasions, questions may seem exasperating. However, before a teacher turns it down, they must appreciate the fact that a question has been posed. If a question is out of context or not particularly relevant to the lesson being taught, it can be deflected.
7: Questioning Also Helps Teachers to Become Better
Certain questions asked by students can be quite stupefying as there is no one teacher who has all the answers. Teachers should not fret if some questions catch them off-guard when they do not have the right answers. In such cases, teachers can surely tell the students that they will answer them the next time. This is vital because it makes teachers more approachable to students and demonstrates that learning is a process that has no end.
As can be seen, a student’s questioning skills in communication must be given encouragement so that it is assured that learning becomes a two-way street, where both the teacher as well as the student partake in the process.
