Look at the list below, which describes ten reasons for asking questions. Which do you think are most directly focused on learning?

To arouse interest and curiosity about a topic.

1. To focus attention on a particular issue or concept.
2. To develop an active approach to learning.
3. To stimulate students to ask questions of themselves and others.
4. To structure a task in such a way that learning will be maximised.
5. To identify specific difficulties that prevent students from learning.
6. To communicate to the class that they are expected to be involved in the lesson.
7. To provide an opportunity for students to assimilate and reflect upon information.
8. To help the development of thinking skills.
9. To express a genuine interest in the ideas and feelings of students.

It should be clear that numbers 2, 5, 6 and 8 are clearly related to learning progress and the other points are all related to helping students learn and to understand better how they learn. But all the ways of questioning in this list have a place in the teacher’s repertoire of questioning skills. The important thing is to be aware of which types of question you need to use frequently in order to check progress, and which types of question help learning.