Skill of Probing Questions in Microteaching with Components 

Back to: Learning and Teaching Unit 5

Questioning is a highly essential component of teaching because it enables teachers to interact with the learners and get to know how much they have understood and as well as enables learners to place their queries and clear their doubts. It is also crucial in keeping the classroom environment motivated and engaged.

The various components of the skill of probing questions include the following:

Prompting

Prompting includes the skill of probing in which the teachers give hints to the learners to enable them to give the correct answer. This skill enables teachers to get an answer from the learners even when they feel like they don’t know the answer. For example, What is the process of photosynthesis? Is chlorophyll involved in the process?

Redirecting

When a learner is not able to answer the question even after probing, the question is redirected to another learner. This is effective in increasing the thinking skills of learners and also involves all learners in the process. For example, asking another learner to answer – What is the process of photosynthesis?

Refocusing

Sometimes, while answering the questions, students may diverge from the topic and it is necessary to bring the focus back to the topic being taught. For this, the skill of refocusing is required.

Seeking further information

This skill enables learners to ask further questions during which the teacher clarifies, elaborates, and explains the lesson, even more, to make the students clear about the lesson.

Critical Awareness

This skill enables the learners to think beyond what is taught so that they can develop their points of view and perspective about things. For example, Why do you think the sky is blue?

These are the five components involved in the skill of probing questions. Including all of these components in the teaching-learning process will make it effective and successful.