As an online private tutor, it’s crucial to arrive at each class prepared with techniques to help students not only comprehend concepts but also develop the skills necessary to support future learning as they progress through their academic careers. Asking questions is a crucial skill for learning more about what your student already knows, any skill gaps they might have, and the areas you should focus on throughout the session. See the ways that each level of questioning might enhance your online private tutor’s session!
Students’ general comprehension of the material can be improved by asking questions as they study. An online private tutor might ask students questions using a variety of strategies during tutoring sessions. Costa’s Stages of Questioning is a crucial learning technique that encourages pupils to gradually advance towards higher-level thinking abilities as they solve issues and comprehend topics. Students are encouraged to look at the subject in its most fundamental form starting at the lower levels. They are encouraged to analyse the content at hand more carefully and deepen their understanding as they go to those higher levels.
Understanding Various Questioning Levels
Three important levels of inquiries are outlined in Costa’s Levels of Questioning to help students’ comprehension grow.Level 1: Compilation
Students are just beginning to grasp the concept at this grade level. It’s possible to ask them to define, describe, or memorise elementary topics.Processing at Level 2
Students may begin to compare and contrast the information with other material they have been exposed to or begin to distinguish between various levels of knowledge or concepts as they begin to digest it.Three: Applying
Students are able to use the knowledge or concept they have gained at higher levels as they go to Level 3. They could assess or analyse the content, produce original content, or develop fresh ideas based on it. The Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy uses a similar framework to assist students progress in their learning by taking them from remembering to understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating, and creating.Using inquiries at Level 1 to assist students in gathering knowledge
The appropriate questions can be crucial in assisting pupils in learning and assimilating knowledge. At Level 1, instructors must pose questions that students can directly answer by consulting their course material. These are the fundamental ideas that students might require more assistance with or support in comprehending.In order to determine where each student is in the learning process, tutors frequently employ Level 1 questions. They could want additional assistance in those areas and may need to devote more time to Level 1 questions if they have only recently begun working on a new concept or topic.Prompts like this might be seen in Level 1 questions:
- Give this diagram’s components names: What’s shown in this diagram? Put a name on it.
- List the components of a story: “Let’s dissect this story; what happened in this section?”
- When asked, “What are the 9 times tables?” recite your multiplication facts.
- Name the primary characters in this story: “Who are the central figures?”
- What was the major concept of this passage? Please define.
Level 2: Utilizing queries to aid in the student’s information processing
Students are looking more closely at the material at Level 2 and creating new connections based on what they already know. Level 2 questions might not be taken from from their page. Instead, they could ask students to combine the new knowledge they have just acquired with knowledge from earlier lessons or themes.Prompts from level 2 questions might be:
- See how these two passages differ from one another: What distinguishes the two stories you read in class from one another?
- Infer the possible response to the following query: “What do you believe the response may be, if this were true?”
- To categorise the list, ask yourself: “How can we divide this list into different groups? What classifications might those be?
- What are the similarities and distinctions between the two genres of fiction and nonfiction?
- Consider the impact or importance of the content while arranging it: “How would you arrange this stuff from most important to least important?”
Level 3: Utilizing queries to assist students in applying knowledge
Students get the chance to put the new knowledge they have acquired to use in Level 3. They might make use of that data to assess or produce their own content. Level 3 questions frequently urge students to apply new ideas or to consider the information being presented in a more critical manner.Prompts from level 3 questions might be:
- Adapt the style to create your own paragraph, tale, or essay. What kind of narrative did you read? Create a fresh paragraph using that same format.
- Determine how an experiment will turn out. What do you believe this experiment’s results will be?
- Examine this passage in light of the ideas or details offered. “After reading this passage, what are your thoughts on it? What does it do to you? What does it make you think of?
What does the fact that X is true tell you about Y?
Forecast what may occur if Y changed, then imagine what would happen if X occurred. “How might the antagonist be impacted if the main character departed the story?” The likelihood that students will demonstrate higher-level mastery over those new concepts can be increased by using these analytical questions to assist students delve deeper into the material being given.how to use particular questions
To encourage pupils to apply higher-order thinking skills, it’s crucial to use a variety of questions from all of Costa’s levels of his schema. Determining when to use a different style of questioning can be difficult, though.- You might choose to begin a language arts class with Level 1 questions that will help pupils reread the passage and make sure they have read it. Then you can gradually get to Level 3, when you might motivate pupils to probe the passage’s meaning in greater depth or even ask them to produce their own.
- You might encourage pupils to begin at Level 1 in a scientific class by providing answers to important questions about the subject or outlining important ideas. When you get to Level 3, you can encourage pupils to make predictions about the outcome of experiments or even to create their own experiments from scratch.
- A maths tutoring session could begin with a fundamental review of the knowledge or ideas required to address a particular issue. Students may learn when to apply these particular rules at Level 2 or choose which model or formula to employ. At Level 3, students may be drawing conclusions about more challenging ideas from those models.
