This book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Licensemoments of staring at a speaker while daydreaming, only to realize later that we have not heard anything that the
speaker said. It is sometimes important, therefore, to probe more actively how much students are actually
understanding during lessons or other activities.
Strategies for probing understanding generally involve mixing instruction with conversation (Renshaw, 2004).
In explaining a new topic, for example, you can check for understanding by asking preliminary questions
connecting the topic to students’ prior experiences and knowledge about the topic. Note that this strategy combines
qualities of both instruction and conversation, in the sense that it involves combining “test” questions, to which you
already know the answer, with real questions, to which you do not. When introducing a science lesson about density
to kindergarten children, for example, the teacher might reasonably ask both of the following:
Teacher: Which of these objects that I have do you expect will sink and which ones will float? (A test
question—the teacher already will know the answer.)
Teacher: What other things have you seen that float? Or that sink? (A real question—the teacher is
asking about their experience and does not know the answer.)
By asking both kinds of questions, the teacher scaffolds the children’s learning, or creates a zone of proximal
development, which we described in Chapter 2 as part of Vygotsky’s theory of learning. Note that this zone has two
important features, both of which contribute to children’s thinking. One is that it stimulates students’ thinking (by
asking them questions), and the other is that it creates a supportive and caring atmosphere (by honoring their
personal experiences with real questions). The resulting mix of warmth and challenge can be especially motivating
(Goldstein, 1999).
When warmth and challenge are both present in a discussion, it sometimes even becomes possible to do what
may at first seem risky: calling on individual students randomly without the students’ volunteering to speak. In a
study of “cold calling” as a technique in university class discussions, the researchers found that students did not
find the practice especially stressful or punitive, as the teachers feared they might, and that spontaneous
participation in discussion actually improved as a result (Dallimore, et al., 2006). The benefit was most likely to
happen, however, when combined with gestures of respect for students, such as warning individuals ahead of class
that they might be called on, or allowing students to formulate ideas in small groups before beginning to call on
individuals.
Helping students to articulate their ideas and thinking
The classroom talk register is well designed to help students articulate ideas and thoughts, particularly when
used in the context of discussion. In addition to the conversational probes, like the ones we described in the
previous section, there are other ways to support students in expressing their ideas fully and clearly. One way is for
the teacher to check repeatedly on her own understanding of students’ contributions as a discussion unfolds.
Consider this exchange:
Student (during a class discussion): It seems to me that we all need to learn more climate change.
Teacher: What do you mean by “learn more”? It’s a big topic; what parts of it are you thinking
about?Educational Psychology 173 A Global Text