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Feedback is important because it indicates how you must adjust your instruction to
communicate effectively. If the students have obviously not learned, then you must modify your
instructional approach.
Feedback makes the learning process an intercommunication between the students and the
instructor. As such. it is critical to the success of the instructional mission.
ORAL QUESTIONS
For two-way communication to take place between you and the students, you must use good,
thought-provoking questions throughout the lesson. The use of oral questions allows you to
determine from time to time if you are maintaining essential communication. When properly
planned, implemented,
and evaluated, oral questioning improves effectiveness and, more
importantly, student learning.
The greatest resource for enhancing your classroom instruction is the students themselves.
Training is most effective and learning more permanent when the students take an active part
in the process. Students need to interact with the subject matter and the instructor during the
lessons rather than just at test or performance time.
The responsibility of active class participation lies with you, the instructor. Avoid over using
the questioning technique of asking “are there any questions?” That does not stimulate much
thought or generate productive class participation.
As an instructor, always remember that one purpose of questioning is to help students get
involved in learning the material at hand. Some instructors have mastered the technique of
teaching a lesson almost entirely through the use of oral questions. Questions add variety to
a lesson and require active student involvement. However, questions are only as effective as the
manner in which they are used. You can defeat the whole purpose of the questioning technique
by using it improperly, so make sure you learn how to use questions properly.
If you don’t have a natural knack for oral questioning, you can develop some degree of skill
by setting yourself a goal for improvement and then practicing constantly.
Try to decrease the amount of one-way communication in the classroom by asking questions
as much as you make statements. You will find that you have a natural compulsion to “tell,”
which is understandable. After all, that is probably what your instructors did. Studies show
that in a typical classroom, someone is talking two-thirds of the time; and of that time, the
instructor does two-thirds of the talking. You can see the students get only one-third of the
response time in those classrooms. Through good questioning techniques, you can increase and
improve the amount of student responses beyond the one-word contribution.
A key point to remember is that the intent of a question is to elicit a response. Effective use
of questions will result in more student learning than any other single technique. Becoming
skillful in the art of questioning will increase your effectiveness as an instructor.
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