What teachers say

The first edition of Active Questioning was published in Autumn 2010. Over 1800 teachers have been trained first-hand by author David Turner, and well over 1300 schools are using the resource independently.

Teachers tell us that Active Questioning ensures that they get more for their ask in normal, everyday lessons. Answers are scaled up and of a higher quality. Pupils think more deeply, respond more fully and offer higher quality spoken English. This also boosts the quality of written work.

They say that Active Questioning adds value to:

• carpet time
• whole class discussions
• talking partners and think, pair, share
• group work
• participation
• spoken literacy
• literacy development, among children who speak English as a second language
• higher order thinking and speaking skills
• and inspectors notice it.

‘It‘s great because it combines different factors among the many that teachers are expected to constantly juggle, eg good questions, pupil collaborations, differentiation and gives you a system to help you remember them. It also gives you a method by which to do them. ’

Teacher evidence about Active Questioning

For an in-depth look at how Active Questioning worked in one school, see the case study.