Pedagogy Page

THE PROBLEM
What kind of questions will improve mathematical teaching
and force higher levels of thinking?

Here are some questions I found to get started with good questioning. These are by no means the only possibilities, but this table of questions gives a great start on THE PROBLEM.
To promote problem solving, ask:
*What do you need to find out?
*What strategies are you going to use?
*What information do you have?
To help when students get stuck, ask:
*How did you tackle similar problems?
*What do you know that isn't stated in the problem?
*What about putting things in order?
To make connections among ideas, ask:
*How does this relate to ...?
*Can you give me an example of...?
*What previous ideas helped in solving this?
To help students collectively make sense of math, ask:
*What do you think about what ______ said?
*Can you convince the rest of us that your answer makes sense?
To help students learn to reason mathematically, ask:
*Is that true for all cases? Explain.
*How would you prove that?
*What assumptions are you making?
To encourage reflection, ask:
*Does your answer seem reasonable? Why/not?
*What are the key points/main ideas in this lesson?
*Can you describe your method to us all?
To encourage conjecturing ask:
*What would happen if ...?
*Do you see a pattern? Can you explain it?
*Can you predict the next one?
To check student progress, ask:
*Why did you decide to use this method?
*Is there a more efficient strategy?
*What do you notice when ...?
 
To help students build confidence ask:
*How did you reach that conclusion?
*Why is that true?
*Can you make a model to show that?
table copied from Developing Mathematical Thinking with Effective Questions, PBS.org/teacherline

My students often say, "Why can't you just answer my question? You always answer me with another question." Most often I reply, "I answer your question with a question because I don't want to take away the feeling of power you'll have when you figure out the answer for yourself."