Introduction

Active Questioning is about getting more for your ask in normal everyday lessons, meaning that questioning pushes pupils to think hard and scale up the quality of their responses. We think teachers deserve more for their ask, and the principles and techniques set out in these materials will support pupils to give longer, detailed and more fluent answers with confidence.

The key theme is: it’s in the ask. The way we ask questions is just as important as the questions themselves.

Active Questioning works on a cause and effect basis. The techniques lead to higher levels of engagement, participation, challenge, learning and literacy. Although this resource focuses on questions and answers spoken out loud during whole class teaching, the techniques can also be adapted for use in written work.

This resource can be used for continuing professional development, either through self-study (reading through the resource and applying the guidance provided), or in an INSET session for staff in your school. Active Questioning is designed for teachers, although teaching and learning support staff may also benefit from its guidance. The techniques can be used with pupils in any phase.

To see how effective Active Questioning can be, see the case study. This shows how a primary school adapted the techniques to their own context, with excellent results.