Having good questioning strategies is one of the most important parts of a teacher's pedagogical toolbox. If questions were literally a tool, I think they'd manifest as a hammer because a hammer can be used to smash some knowledge into place or like a particularly stubborn nail, it can be drawn out using careful maneuvering. There is the commonly held belief that there are no stupid questions, but I think that's only half true at the best of times. Teachers ask stupid questions all the time, but rarely do they get called out on being too vague or making the question too complicated to answer quickly and succinctly. Students of course need to ask questions. It's in their job description and getting the most clarity out of an educational experience is the only way that learning is going to stick in their brains and fit into the schemas they've previously developed or are newly forming about the topic being discussed.
Asking the right questions is a lot like being handy; it's not very intuitive and you've got to practice it a lot before you get good at it. Putting together your first shelf is not going to be perfect. In that same vein, asking pointed questions is not something that teachers are born knowing because it's not something that people use in their daily lives. Sure, people ask questions to gain information, but the intensive brain stretching that teachers perform is a way of thinking that has to be trained. This is something that I have a difficult time with doing in the moment. I know I can create thought provoking questions with a little time, but right now it's very tempting to phrase ideas as statements rather than questions because it feels more accessible to me in a pinch.
Bloom's taxonomy used to be represented as a pyramid with lower level questions making up the base. It was assumed that the majority of questions asked by a teacher would be in that knowledge and comprehension range but, like many educators, I don't think that's the most sensible way to go about looking for understanding. When posing something, I would prefer to start with the higher order question and descend until I get to the level where I can reach the student. The reason that makes sense to me is that I want to set a high standard for the students. It's condescending, especially if we're talking about a group of secondary students, to ask them for low-hanging fruit.
I want them to know that I believe they can answer those complex open-ended questions eventually even if they can't right now. Plus by hitting all the rungs on the way down, the teacher is assessing approximately how many stages it's going to take to get the students to that place of deep knowledge. It also shows the students what the peak is. Kids want to succeed, but I think sometimes teachers forget to show them how tall the mountains they're about to climb are. Of course, if the student is still trying to remember the basic facts this can seem impossible, but most of the time students are closer to the top than they think they are.
Again, talking about trusting students and providing the safety that it takes to have them freely question, it's important to have a mix of individualized and group questioning techniques. I think most teachers gravitate toward posing to a whole group, but there are also plenty of opportunities where teachers can really get into it with a student. As both an observer and a participant I've always found it delightful when a teacher will get a student to answer their own question by steering them with their own series of questions. Sometimes that can be really frustrating when you just want a quick answer, but it teaches a student patience and it also shows the student that the teacher knows them and has complete confidence in them and their ability to problem solve. Some students are not going to rally to bounce and pass in a conversation with other students, so it's important to find ways to connect them into the larger population of the class. If a teacher makes these situations low risk enough, any student will feel empowered to join in and if they're having a rough moment and they need to tap out of the individual attention, the ball can always be redirected back onto the court for someone else to pick up.
