Open Ended Questions: Are They Really That Hard to Ask?

As teachers, we should always ask ourselves, “How can we become better teachers?” I know there is no such thing as a perfect teacher, however, we should always strive for greatness when it comes to our students. The one thing that as teachers we should always strive for is asking questions. There are many things that, we, as teachers need to know before we ask questions. The overall goal is to make sure that the students understand what exactly we are teaching. It is for difficult at times, for teachers, to word questions to students and they actually understand. Questions are important and is the foundation for project based learning. Questions shows whether or not if students understand the lessons. The big question for teachers is how to word those questions. We should always have the students engaged into the lesson. However, in reality, that is not going to always happen. In my opinion, in order to be an effective teacher, we must ask effective questions. When I say effective questions I mean open ended questions. An example, If Rosalind Franklin was alive, how would she feel about Watson and Crick receiving credit for the model of DNA? A closed question needs no example, it is the typical “yes” or “no” question. I believe that open ended questions have no right or wrong answers. Every student is entitled to his/her own opinion.

When I was in school, I was rarely given open ended questions. It seems that many teachers did not engage in conversations with students. Instead, they asked closed ended questions and taught with traditional learning concepts. I want to teach students in a way that I wanted to be taught and that is through engaging questions and more project based learning. Questions are meant to open a students’ minds for critical thinking. I believe critical thinking questions are important to ask students. Critical thinking question help inspire students especially when it comes to project based learning. Being a teacher is my job to make students interested and engaged in the topic. I believe that if students enjoy talking about a subject they will retain the information and will be able to pass a test whether if its essay or multiple choice. At the end of the day, it is my job to ,as an educator, make sure that my students are ready for the road ahead call life.