Study Tip #12
HOW TO ASK QUESTIONS THAT HELP YOUR TEACHER TEACH BETTER

Outline on asking useful questions 

1. Good questions help teachers.
2. Ask about the learning goals.

• Memory goals: Recognition, recall and application
• Skills vs. ordinary knowledge
• Transfer the learning to new examples

3. Ask for a wide range of positive examples.
4. Ask for negative examples.
5. Ask for charts of concepts.
6. Ask for the big ideas.
7. About skills: ask for demonstrations.

• Ask what the goal is for each step.
• Ask what stimuli signal what to do.
• Ask what the right actions are.

1. Good questions help teachers. 

You have probably noticed that you can learn more easily from some teachers than others. Some teachers include several useful kinds of information; others leave them out. If you are alert, you can ask questions that bring forth this useful information and help everybody. Since a students build good memory by making firm associations, you may wish to ask questions that lead teachers to give information that helps you and other students make wise associations. 

2. Ask about the learning goals. 

When you read textbooks and listen to lectures and participate in class discussions and labs and do homework, you face a problem. There is too much to learn. There are too many possible things you can focus on: facts, definitions, theories, values, problem-solving skills, tasks of transferring knowledge and skills to new examples, and lots more. If you know the teachers' goals for you, you can focus your studying better. You can study what's important.

• Question: A simple way of knowing goals is to ask what's on the test. A better way is to raise your hand and ask in a friendly way, "I see there are several different types of knowledge here. What is most important for us to focus on?"

Memory goals: To recognize knowledge or recall it or apply it.

Recognition means knowing something, then seeing some things that are examples of it and others that aren't and being able to recognize which are really examples. Many multiple choice and true-false tests contain recognition questions. (True or false: The capital city of California is Sacramento.)

Recall means getting a question and pulling the answer out of memory. (Can you recall the name of the capital city of Oregon?)

Application means taking information and using it to solve problems or deal with new examples. (Use the fact that 2 + 2 = 4 and tell me how many bags of pine cones I will have if I pick two bags and buy your two bags.)
Teachers differ a lot in what kind of memory for knowledge they have as goals. You can often figure it out by seeing examples of past test questions.

• Question: Ask whether your memory goals are to recognize the knowledge or recall it or apply it.

Memory goals: The kinds of skills you will be expected to develop. 

A skill is the ability to use knowledge and perceptions to do a task. Since the average teacher is more aware of teaching ordinary factual knowledge than skills, you can be very helpful by asking what skills are goals. For example, suppose a teacher uses comparison and contrast questions on essay exams ("Compare Wordsworth's theory of poetry to the theory of A. R. Ammons'). Students with good knowledge but weak skill in writing comparison and contrast essays could have difficulty. If they know in advance that they should develop that skill, they can study some models, practice, get feedback and grow in skill.

• Question: Ask what skills will be asked for.

Memory goals: To transfer knowledge to new examples. 

When you learn knowledge and skill, you will have to use it on new examples you didn't study with. Sometimes it's easy. For example, you may learn to type on one keyboard and use your skill later on a different keyboard, but the skill is very similar. Sometimes transfer is hard. For example, you might learn to recognize a vine maple leaf in biology lab, but you might need to transfer your knowledge later outdoors when vine maple leaves growing under different conditions look a bit different. When you know that the teacher's goal is for you to be able to transfer your knowledge to new examples under confusing conditions, your study strategy will be to study a lot of different examples.

• Questions: So ask about the goal of transfer. Also ask how the ability to transfer will be tested.

3. Ask for a wide range of positive examples. 

Most teachers these days know they can help by giving examples. But many still just give one or two examples and move on. That causes students a problem because they need to know the full range of examples of a concept. They need to know the far out examples. For example, when you learn about mammals, you need to know that whales, who look like fish, are really mammals. When you learn about acceleration in physics you need to know what the acceleration is just as you throw a ball into the air, what it is at the peak of the ball's flight, and what it is when it falls.

• Questions: You can help your teacher by asking what the wide range of examples is. Ask for unusual positive examples, examples that students might not realize were examples of the concept.

4. Ask for negative examples of a concept. 

It is rarer for teachers to consciously teach students what things appear to be good examples of a concept but really are not. A teacher could help teach mammals by teaching the negative example of penguins. In teaching the color mauve, a teacher could show examples of mauve first and then show negative examples, things that are not mauve, like lavender and fuchsia. A teacher could teach positive examples of rhymes (the end of words sound alike, pill and quill) and negative examples involving alliteration where the front of words sound alike ("nattering nabobs of negativism").

• Questions: A good way to ask about negative examples is to ask, "What things do beginners commonly get confused with the concept?" Ask for specific concrete examples, not for more concepts. If your teacher will answer honestly, you'll innocently steal a number of multiple choice questions.

5. Ask for charts of concepts. 

Many teachers must teach sets of concepts. Some are general, some more specific. Think of the biological charts of species that you've seen. Some teachers just teach them in sequence. It is very very helpful to see how they are related, which are the general ones, what families they fall into.

• Questions: Ask your teacher to draw a rough chart or diagram relating the ideas and concepts together.

6. Ask for the big ideas and organizing frameworks in the current topic.

In many fields a few principles unite many small facts and principles. When students know these big ideas and when they relate the many specific facts to the big ideas, they can learn many times faster. For example, in Sociology many different topics are examples of the principle that "if certain people belong to a group, they learn that group's culture and tend to act consistently with it." It applies to small groups and big organizations, to race and class and gender, to institutions, social change and more.

• Questions: Ask your teacher what big ideas and frameworks to look for as you read. After a section of a lecture, ask if there is a unifying idea that summarizes a lot. (See Study Tip #3 on frameworks.)

7. About skills: Ask for demonstrations. 

Every step in doing a skill has three parts: The goal, the current situation, and the right action. Many teachers give incomplete teaching of skills. They merely tell you what to do as if it were only a series of abstract steps. "Do this, then do that, finally do that." That leaves out telling you the goal of each step and what stimuli will signal that you should do that step. That also stops students from seeing the richness that comes from watching demonstrations.

As a student, you can help correct that by asking the teacher to demonstrate doing the skill on real examples. Math teachers do it all the time by working problems on the blackboard. Other teachers should do it, too. You can also ask for and study written examples of doing skills, i.e. sample problems in math. Or suppose the teacher has assigned a paper. Ask if a few good examples of that kind of essay can be put on reserve in the library. Ask the teacher to mark the traits that make these good papers.

• Questions: So ask the teacher to make comments while he or she demonstrates working through the problem naming goals, situation and action. Ask questions like: What do I want to do now (goal)? What is it about this stage that I should look for that tells me what to do (stimulus or situation)? When I want X and see Y, what is the right thing to do (action)?

(Dan Hodges. 7/07)

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