# Academic questioning as an engagement strategy ## tl;dr Ask more questions faster ## Questions and learning * Cognitivists: learning is a change in long-term memory - but we can't see inside students' brains, so... * Behaviorists: learning is an increase in the rate of correct responding * asking more questions leads to more responses and more learning - think about the number of questions per *minute* not per lesson * asking more questions leads to asking better questions and better responses * asking more questions allows students to feel frequent success, and success is motivating - optimal questions: expect 70% success for new content, 90% success for review content * asking more questions minimizes off-task behavior ## Increase the validity of questions * is it possible for students to respond correctly without thinking about the content? * nonexamples - word search - guided notes - group work * example: choral response - model demonstration ## Increase the rate of questions per minute * nonexample: complex task example-problem pair - model demonstration: distributive property * example: atomized complex task - model demonstration: distributive property - model demonstration: divisibility rule ## Increase the rate of responses per student per minute * (20 responses per question) x (1 question) > (1 response per question) x (20 questions) * (2 minutes per question) x (5 questions) > (10 minutes per 5 questions) x (5 questions) * nonexamples - volunteer - model demonstration * examples: * model demonstration: miniwhiteboards