Effective Questioning Strategies

Teaching with Valor Podcast: A Veteran Teachers Perspective

Send us a text

Welcome back to another episode of the Teaching with Valor Podcast, where we explore the strategies and skills that empower educators to teach with excellence, day in and day out. I’m your host, Don Fessenden, and today, we’re diving into a topic that’s often overlooked but is absolutely foundational to great teaching: Effective Questioning Strategies.

Now, at first glance, questioning might seem straightforward—after all, we’ve been asking questions our whole lives. But in the classroom, asking the right questions in the right way can be transformative. Thoughtful, well-structured questioning encourages critical thinking, deepens student understanding, and helps teachers assess where students are in their learning.
Whether you're guiding an elementary student through their first math word problem, facilitating a lively debate in a middle school English class, or pushing high schoolers to evaluate historical perspectives, effective questioning is key.
Show Notes
For more information on this topic check out the following resources:

• "The Art of Questioning" by Dennis Palmer Wolf: A classic resource on using questioning to promote deeper learning.
• Bloom’s Taxonomy of Cognitive Skills: A guide to creating higher-order questions that challenge students to think critically.
• Edutopia – Questioning Strategies for the Classroom: www.edutopia.org
• Socratic Seminars in the Classroom: Resources for using Socratic questioning to facilitate deep discussions.
• The Questioning Toolkit by Jamie McKenzie: A practical guide to fostering inquiry and curiosity in students.

Stay tuned for more episodes, and remember, every student is unique, and every classroom can be a place where all students succeed. Keep teaching with valor!