Teaching Prepared by Caroline W. Ndirangu

Fluency in asking questions
This includes:
•  Clarity and coherence
•  Pausing and pacing
•  Directing and distributing
•  Prompting and probing

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African Virtual University
   
Clarity and coherence
Questions need to be planned. They should be included in the lesson plan and 
the expected answers should be written too in the learner’s activity column. Use 
simple language. Ask one question at a time.
Pausing and pacing
Teachers have a tendency of asking more questions than receive answers.
This is due to lack of pausing between questions. Pausing ( 3 seconds) gives the 
learners an opportunity to think. One should look for non-verbal clues which 
tell you whether pupils have an answer i.e. hands are put up, facial expression. 
Pacing is determining how often to ask the questions.
Directing and distributing
Some pupils are more willing to answer than others therefore the teachers must 
learn their learners by name so that all the learners are involved during the lesson. 
Question answering is a time to build self esteem. Questions could be answered 
by a group if the learners are doing group work, the ‘Heads Together’ method 
results in more student –on- task behavior, better test performance and greater 
satisfaction with instruction.
Directing a question to a learner who is not attentive is a way maintaining class 
control and disciplining. Redirecting questions helps keep students alert and 
attentive.