III

THE ART OF QUESTIONING

1. _The importance of good questioning_

Skill in the art of questioning lies at the basis of all good teaching. When we were children it looked so easy for the teacher to sit and ask the questions which we were expected to answer. When we become teachers we find that it is much harder to ask the questions than to answer them. For to question well, one must not only know the subject thoroughly, but must also constantly interpret the mind of the pupil to discover what question next to ask, and whether he is mastering what we are teaching him.

Good questioning stimulates thought, leads to inquiry, and results in understanding and mastery. Poor questioning leaves the mental powers unawakened, cripples thought, and results in inefficiency and lack of mastery.

2. _Need of fundamental principles_

Good questioning is dependent upon the teacher's having a firm command of a few essential principles which apply to all questioning used in teaching. The teacher's constant self-criticism in the light of these will greatly improve his control of discussion in the cla.s.s room.

3. _The principle of freedom from textbooks_

The questions of the recitation must of course deal with the matter of the textbook and be directly suggested by it. Yet there are two dangers to be avoided in this connection: (1) Questions should not follow the language of the text, and (2) the teacher should not be dependent on the textbook to suggest the question itself or to determine the correctness of the answer.

The teacher who has not the lesson well prepared, or who is mentally lazy, has a constant temptation to ask questions in the words of the book. This is much easier than to know the subject and the textbook both well enough to formulate original, appropriate questions. An ill.u.s.tration of what is meant is found in the following account of a recitation conducted from "Montgomery's American History," the lesson being on the landing of the Pilgrims (pp. 77, 78):--

Q. On a morning late in November, what did the Pilgrims do?

A. They sighted Cape Cod.

Q. Two days later, where did the Mayflower come to anchor?

A. In Provincetown Harbor.

Q. While the Mayflower remained at anchor, what did Captain Standish and a boatload of men do?

A. They went out to explore.

Q. On the sh.o.r.e of Plymouth harbor what is there lying?

A. A granite bowlder.

It is seen that each of these questions follows the words of the text, and that the answer but completes the sentence of which the question is a part. Questions of this kind only suggest to the memory the statement of the text, and do not cause the pupil to use his own thought in realizing the actual event. Hence they arouse little interest and leave little impression. They train the verbal memory, but leave imagination, thought, and understanding untouched. How much better such questions as these:--

When did the Pilgrims first sight land?

What land did they see?

What was its appearance?

Have you ever seen a stretch of sh.o.r.e like this one?

Why did not the Pilgrims land at this point?

Where did they finally anchor?

What measures did they take to see whether this was a suitable place to land?

Why is the name "Plymouth Rock" so famous in American history?

These questions cover just the same ground as the ones above, but they suggest living pictures and actual events rather than the language of the textbook.

The unprepared or lazy teacher is also in danger of relying on the textbook for his questions even when he does not formulate them in the language of the printed page. Not infrequently teachers conduct the whole of a recitation with the text open before them, hardly taking their eyes from the book, and seeming to have no inspiration or questions not immediately gleaned from the page before them. In extreme cases of unpreparedness they may even have to test the correctness of the answers given by the cla.s.s by reference to the text. Of course this is all the highest degree of inefficiency. It should not be called teaching at all, for no one can teach another that which he does not himself possess as a part of his own mental equipment. Nothing can be more deadening to a cla.s.s than to see a teacher, whom they look upon as their intellectual leader, floundering in such a vain attempt to teach something that he does not himself know.

The eyes and the mind of the teacher must both be free in the recitation--the eyes to look interest and encouragement into the eyes of the cla.s.s, the mind to marshal the points of the lesson and watch the effects of their presentation on the minds of the pupils. A recitation at its best consists of an animated and interesting conversation between teacher and cla.s.s. And no conversation can be live and interesting when one of its partic.i.p.ants has mind and eyes riveted to a book; for conversation involves an interchange of expression, of spirit, and of personality as well as of words.

It is not meant that a teacher must never have a textbook open before him during a recitation. Often it is not only desirable, but necessary that he should do so; but only for suggestion and reference, and never to supply questions and test answers.

It is certainly much better to have the textbook before one than to teach the lesson after a disconnected and haphazard fashion from lack of familiarity with its points. An excellent subst.i.tute for the text, however, is an outline, or plan of the lesson embodying the main points, ill.u.s.trations, and applications to be made. Such an outline will save the teacher from wandering too far afield in the discussions, will insure unity in the lesson, and make certain that important points shall not be overlooked.

A desirable rule for the teacher to set for himself would be so to prepare for the recitation by mastery of the subject, and by lesson plan or outline, _that he does not need to have the textbook open before him when the pupils do not also have their books open_. The teacher who will heroically meet this standard will soon find growing in himself a feeling of mastery of his subjects and of joy in his teaching.

4. _The principle of unity or continuity in questions_

Questions should be so planned that they develop or bring out the unity of the lesson. It is possible for questions to be so haphazard and disconnected that the pupil receives the impression of a series of unrelated facts, rather than a unified and related subject. In good questioning, one question naturally grows out of another, so that the series develops step by step the truth contained in the lesson, and brings it to the mind of the child as a complete whole.

This means that the teacher must know the whole subject so thoroughly that the right questions come to him easily and naturally, and in the right order to bring out the successive steps of the lesson in their logical relations.

The difference between a related series of questions and an unrelated is shown in two lists which follow. Both deal with the same subject-matter, a physiology lesson on respiration. The questions of the first list are not themselves faulty, but there is no continuity among them; one does not grow out of another so as to "develop" the subject in the minds of the cla.s.s.

What change takes place in the air while in the lungs?

What change takes place in the blood while in the lungs?

How many cubic inches of air will the lungs contain?

How much of this cannot be expelled by breathing out?

How many times do we naturally breathe in a minute?

What are some of the effects of breathing impure air?

How is the oxygen carried by the blood?

What is animal heat?

What is the temperature of the body?