1. Questioning

Questions can be critical elements for teachers to use to stimulate student thinking. So, they can make students critical thinkers who can engage successfully in analytic reasoning and problem-solving.

Yet, merely raising questions does not encourage students to think.

Therefore, it is so important to use strategic questioning (to be systematic in the use and development of questioning in every lesson). This can help you increase students’ participation, stimulate their thinking and curiosity, and promote their understanding of the lesson.

To learn more about strategic questioning read: Strategies questioning: What every teacher needs to boost students’ learning.

Besides improving your questioning skills (using strategic questioning), it is critical to teach students how to frame their own questions.

Here are some effective questioning techniques to use with your students:

• Teach students how to formulate questions about a specific point, following Bloom’s Taxonomy.
• Demonstrate some phenomenon and have the students raise questions about what is happening. Provide only a yes or no response to each question and encourage more students to address their questions.
• Ask students to prepare study or recitation questions ahead of time about the subject being studied. Select a few students each day to prepare a series of questions for their peers. For more interactive questioning sessions, promote student-led discussions.
• Have students question the author of the texts they have read for class. Their inquiries concern:1) What is the author trying to say? 2) What did the author say to make you think that? 3) What do you think the author means? These queries are then followed by other students’ questions as they construct the author’s meaning (Kucan & Beck,1997).
• Use Socratic Seminar to encourage students to raise and discuss more questions.

 

2. Brainstorming

Asking students to generate new ideas can be a difficult task for them. They may not know if their ideas are worth sharing with others and fear being criticized.

So, one of the best ways to get students more creative and voice their ideas in the classroom is by teaching them how to brainstorm effectively.

Brainstorming is a method of thinking up new concepts, ideas, or solutions. It generates so many ideas in a short amount of time and helps solve problems more efficiently.

So, by teaching and practicing this instructional strategy, your students will develop their capacity to think creatively.

But, how to implement brainstorming?

With large classes, you can divide students into small groups or use individual brainstorming.

For a productive brainstorming session here are some suggestions:

• Start with an open-ended question or a problem for students to brainstorm. Make it clear and simple. For instance, how to use social media more wisely? How to keep children and teens safe online? How can we make all students focused on success? etc. You can share your question the day before the brainstorming session to give students more time to think about it.
• To think creatively, students need the energy and willingness to engage. So, pick the right time where they are rested and in good spirits (not at the end of the lesson/day).
• Select a method for recording the discussion. It can be taped, or one or two students who write quickly can serve as recorders.
• Set a specific time for brainstorming. Brainstorming sessions should not last very long (10 to 15 minutes should be enough time in the classroom).
• Help them use graphic organizers to organize more their ideas.
• There are some very important rules to follow for brainstorming sessions. No criticism is to be made of any suggestion. Students should build on one another’s ideas. No idea belongs to any individual, so encourage “piggybacking.”
• After the brainstorming session, students should evaluate the ideas using some sort of criteria (ex. how important are these ideas/solutions). Those relevant ideas can be used for another type of discussion.

3. Problem-based learning

It is also called problem-solving instruction, an inquiry learning process where students seek answers or solutions to real-world problems.

There are several benefits of using this instructional strategy with students. It can increase students’ motivation, and promote higher-level thinking skills, teamwork skills, and metacognition.

To gain such benefits, problem-based learning requires a degree of freedom to explore the problem and responsibility to find possible solutions.

The teacher’s role is to clarify the problematic situation, guide students, and monitor regularly their progress. So, less direct instruction is expected.

Since inquiry is not limited to science only, all subject teachers can use this instructional strategy in their classes.

How to implement PBL?

• Locate a real-world problem that does not have one right answer. It requires questioning, information gathering, analysis, and reflection.
• provide facts and raise related questions;
• you can provide some action plan to hook students into the problem;
• monitor continuously students’ progress;

How about students? What are the steps for solving problems?

Students discuss first what they know about the problem. Then, they analyse it to understand its nature, related issues, and limits. They brainstorm ideas about the problem and put down their question and hypotheses.

Next, students need to identify the necessary information to understand the problem and the resources to gather it. They gather data that are relevant by means of interviews, questionnaires, and other data collection tools. Then, they evaluate the data for apparent biases or errors and synthesize the data for meaningful relationships.

Lastly, students make generalizations and suggest alternatives to rectify the problem. To share the results with others, they can publish their work.

4. Think-Aloud

Being aware of our thought processes while we are thinking is essential. This is metacognition. Research indicates that effective problem solvers talk to themselves constantly restating the situation, rechecking their progress, and evaluating whether their thinking is moving in an appropriate direction (Meijer et al.2006).

So, developing students’ metacognition skills is essential to improve their thinking processes.

Think-aloud is among the metacognitive techniques that can encourage students’ thinking. Students describe what is going on in their minds while they are thinking about a topic/task/problem.

The aim of think-aloud is to help students practise thinking and identify effective thinking steps. So, the focus is on the process of thinking rather than the product of thinking.

To use it effectively with your students, help them first understand the think-aloud process. You can share with them the thinking steps you follow while planning your lessons.

Then, provide much practice as possible. In pairs, students think aloud using selected topics related to classroom issues and the subject matter being studied.

They can also explain to each other their understanding of an assignment and the steps they will follow in completing it. This will help students identify productive thinking and study strategies.

 

5. Reciprocal teaching

Another metacognitive technique is reciprocal teaching in which students assume the role of the teacher in small group reading sessions. This can help improve student reading comprehension, and metacognition skills, and also generate personal interaction.

In reciprocal teaching, you’re going to engage students in the four tasks:

1. Predicting: While reading, students should predict what comes next in the text.
2. Clarifying: They clarify any misunderstandings or unclear points (‘I think the author is saying….’).
3. Questioning: They generate self-testing questions, that both reflect an understanding of the text while guiding ongoing inquiry to improve understanding. So, they need to raise comprehension questions (answers in the text) and critical thought questions (require their opinions).
4. Summarizing: Students summarize what they have read. They can work in small groups to create a semantic map and share it with others.

 

6. Think-Pair Share

This discussion strategy fosters students’ social skills, improves their speaking and listening skills, and motivates them to share their ideas with their peers. It has three steps:

Step 1: Think. You ask a question to the whole class and allow them a short time to “think” about the response (2 to 5 minutes).

Step 2: Pair. Designate partners to pair up and discuss their ideas and ask questions of their partners about their thoughts on the topic.

Step 3: Share. You now call on the pairs to share their thinking with the class. After sharing, you can have pairs talk about how their thinking perhaps changed as a result of the “share” element.

 

7. Cooperative learning

Cooperative learning is learning based on a small-group approach to teaching that makes students accountable for both individual and group achievement. It focuses on the task to be accomplished and requires students’ interaction, cooperation, and responsibility.

It can foster social skills, improve academic learning and so many other benefits.

Yet, cooperative learning is not just a group work task. Some basic elements need to be present to make learning cooperative.

To learn more about this effective instructional strategy, you can read this post: What is Cooperative Learning?

 

8. Student-led conference

This is a great tool to engage students in deep reflection on their learning. Students of all grade levels conduct a pre-planned meeting with their family members and teachers during which time they share a portfolio of their work. So, they present their best work, what they learned, and their needs to improve more.

This opportunity helps students take ownership of their learning, reflect upon their learning goals, and hone their presentation skills.

Because those meetings can cause students stress, you need to help them get prepared time ahead. So, guide them in constructing their portfolios and making their presentation simple and organized. Be sure to review the learning goals with your student.

Also, organize the conference area for successful communication and set up a conferencing schedule. Don’t forget to inform parents about the learning goals and process of such kinds of conferences.

During the conference, guide the student’s presentation, raising questions and providing constructive feedback. Also, help the student and parents determine the necessary steps to improve further learning. You can agree on the next conference’s date to follow up.

For more resources about student-led conferences, check out

These were the most effective instructional strategies educators need to use in teaching. Remember that these require modeling and practice to achieve the intended goals. So, some preparation and reflection are necessary to see the change we all admire. All the best!

References

Kucan, L., & I. L. Beck. (1997). “Thinking Aloud and Reading Comprehension Research: Inquiry, Instruction, and Social Interaction.” Review of Educational Research 67(3): 271–299.

Meijer, J., M.V. J. Veenman, & B. H. A. M. van Hout-Wolters. (2006). “Metacognitive Activities in Text-Studying and Problem-Solving: Development of a Taxonomy.” Educational Research and Evaluation 12(3): 209–237.