Part One: The importance of questioning’ (from Open-ended Maths Activities by Peter Sullivan and Pat Lilburn)

Key notes from reading

• 3 Main features of a good question

1) require more than remembering a fact or reproducing a skill

2) students learn by answering questions and teachers learn about students from their attemps

3) more than 1 answer.

• 1) More than remembering- knowledge/skills vs having a context to apply the knowledge/skills
• 2) Students learning by doing- physically doing a problem, students are able learn as they are involved in a problem. Can give teachers a clear indication of how much students have mastered the skill and whether they need further development.
• 3) Having more than 1 answer fosters higher level thinking because they encourage students to develop their problem solving expertise.