Verbal questioning Vs written answers (for knowledge based answers)

When observing a lesson, many an observer will look for a “vibe” in the classroom and will enjoy the active verbal participation of students, interacting with the teacher and fellow classmates. This was very prominent in the first school I worked in as an NQT (newly qualified teacher) where many current trending fads were popular amongst the management and influential staff members. I remember one of the particularly interesting CPD sessions in which all the staff watched a recorded lesson observation summary of a maths teacher with a top set class. I’m a science teacher and so I can’t comment on the content delivery, but his style was very clear: silent lessons with teacher input and student practice. The students only interacted with the teacher when they had a doubt to resolve, apart from that the teacher gave his explanations using the whiteboard, and then periodically gave the students opportunity to practice. This format was repeated several times during the lesson while the observer questioned the students individually about the lesson. All of them claimed to really enjoy learning maths and solving the problems provided. Once it finished we could discuss our perceptions of the lesson. Some of the older staff thought it was a good solid lesson, but most of the staff couldn’t believe how boring/bad the lesson had been. Completely lacking “vibe” and interaction.

Many classrooms have become fearful of silence, and more in favour of a vibrant classroom but which will lead to better long-term learning? Only purposeful practice of memories will strengthen them so that they are accessible on a later date (rather than forgotten). So, when it comes to knowledge based questions, we should aim to have as much participation as possible. In the classroom verbal questioning can look great, and feel great to the teacher, but if one student is asked to answer a question, how many of the other students will engage also? In other words, how many of the other students will be given the opportunity to recall the memories they have and process them? With the little time we have with our students, every opportunity should be taken for all students to practice. For me, this translates to planning questions before a lesson and having all students answer them by writing them down in silence.

Silence is one of the most important tools for a teacher; it allows students the tranquillity to think without distractions and helps achieve the highest possible participation. Some students want to work in pairs and discuss their answers, but more often than not, one student will be stronger than the other and will provide the answers before the other student has had time to think. This situation immediately removes the other student’s opportunity to think, recall and strengthen their memories. By working individually, each student has the chance to practice what they know.

Some students will also prefer to “do it in their head”, but this is also a bad option. Many of these students will have an understanding of the concept, but the level of detail they remember is questionable. When these students see the answers to the questions, they often nod and confirm to themselves how much they knew and how easy the question was. However, the problem here is that they have merely “recognised” the answer but given the chance to reproduce it without any prompts, they would struggle. They have failed in two areas; they haven’t used the opportunity to practice recalling their knowledge, and they have also missed the opportunity to discover what they don’t know (or don’t remember). Only testing (practising recall) can give a student these two opportunities and so by writing their answers down, it is much easier for the student to see how much knowledge has been retained, and what needs to be practised further.

Furthermore, feedback is enhanced during written questions. If the questions are well planned, and students are given enough answering time the teacher will be able to wander and read answers being written down. During verbal questioning the teacher will only ever hear the answer of one student and that answer may not give the detail that a student would be willing to give when they have the time to organise and answer on paper. As the teacher circulates, they can note down any misconceptions they spot and address them quickly, only mind-reading could do this with verbal questioning. Feedback is then easily given to all the students in the class by providing the model answers for them to read in silence. Teacher-student discussion can then follow by discussing any parts that were not fully understood or confused by a student.

Despite not being conducive to a vibrant classroom and superficially may appear more boring to an observer, written answers (in silence), provide a better method to increase participation, practice, and feedback to all the students of the classroom, whilst also more diagnostic to the teacher. Long-term learning can only be achieved through practice and we should therefore be finding every opportunity to ensure all students have the chance to participate and practice in lesson time.