Introduction

Active Questioning provides guidance on how to make classroom learning dialogues even more effective in your school, in order to challenge pupils, increase their engagement in lessons, and deepen their enjoyment of learning. A key theme of this resource is that questioning techniques are as important as the questions themselves – “it’s in the ask”.

Questioning that is ‘active’ makes use of techniques which lead to high levels of pupil engagement, participation, challenge and learning within short time frames in lessons. It helps to prevent passive, teacher-led learning (a common criticism from Ofsted inspectors about lessons they observe). Although this resource focuses on questions and answers spoken out loud during whole class teaching, the techniques can be adapted for use in written work.

This resource can be used for continuing professional development, either through self-study (reading through the resource and applying the guidance provided), or in an INSET session for staff in your school. Active Questioning is designed for teachers, although teaching and learning support staff may also benefit from its guidance. The techniques can be used with pupils in any phase.