How probing questions can help students to develop their understanding and ideas
Written By: Author(s): Tom Sherrington and Sara Stafford
1 min read
Probing questions help teachers steer students towards a deeper mode of understanding.
Asking questions which encourage thoughtful, deep and more exploratory responses.
What does it mean?
Teachers can steer the thinking of students so that their responses go beyond the surface-level and into a deeper, more exploratory mode of understanding by asking well-planned, probing questions.
Probing is effective as a strategy for one-to-one interventions, as well as whole-class discussions. Well-managed, effective probing should secure the attention of all students, allowing the teacher to direct the dialogue from student to student, developing ideas through repeated exchanges and deeper thinking.
Examples of probing questions might include:
‘Can you explain how you worked that out?’
‘Can you give an example?’
‘Is that always true?’
‘Does anyone disagree?’
‘Can you think of a case where this would be different?’
‘How does that example compare to this example?’
‘Which of those factors is the most important?’
What are the
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This article was published in October 2018 and reflects the terminology and understanding of research and evidence in use at the time. Some terms and conclusions may no longer align with current standards. We encourage readers to approach the content with an understanding of this context.
Hi, when was this article published please?
Hi Stephen, this was published on 24 October 2018.