What is component 3b and why is it important?
Component 3b is all about questioning and discussion techniques. As teachers, we must be prepared to question and discuss material with students in a way that is more than verbal recitation and quizzing. For students, it is important that are truly understanding material and content, not just memorizing for the sake of a good grade. Often times, there can be so much stressing on good grades and not actually taking the time to learn the material. As a teacher, we need to be able to make an impact with our teaching so that students can take away something important and vital. Good teachers make use of divergent and convergent questions that allow for students to formulate hypothesis, make connections, and challenge previously held views. With these, students will be able to truly learn and understand material because of the personalized and individualized experience gained from the questions. Without discussion and questioning techniques that meet the needs of all learners, we are not truly challenging and pushing our students to their best abilities. Our questions should be formed with the intention of bettering student success and learning. As teachers, we also need to provide the most opportunities for students to discuss and collaborate with each other; from this, they can gain knowledge and skills that transcend the class.
What are the elements?
Component 3b contains three elements: quality of questions and prompts, discussion techniques, and student participation. Quality of questions means that our questions of high quality because they force students to think and reflect, deeper their understanding, and test their ideas against those of their classmates; high quality does not mean high difficulty. Teachers must also keep in mind that they should not stress number of questions over quality of questions; it is often better to have fewer higher quality questions than to have many low quality questions. It is also important to note that low-quality questions should not be ignored, either. They can be used for review of ideas and to prepare students minds for the higher quality questions and discuss that will occur. Teachers should also make sure they provide sufficient time for discussion and answering of questions. Discussion techniques means that you as the teacher promote learning through discussion. Often times, students learn better through collaboration and discussion because it forces them to pull together what they do and do not know to formulate a stance, response, or argument. By doing this, it is personalized because they are using their own voice to formulate a stance and opinion on the topics. These discussions should be inclusive of all students and enable students to control the direction of the discussion. Student participation means that as the teacher, you are able to ensure that all students are heard and contribute. As a teacher, being able to mediate and include questions that probe and prompt participation from those students who sometimes lack a voice. The key factor to remember throughout is that explanation does not mean discussion; discussion requires taking what is learned to the next level.
Cool ideas to help implement 3b?
References:
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