What inspectors say

Ofsted and its inspection workforce do not have a preferred teaching style and do not grade individual lessons. Like teachers, inspectors are genuinely interested in the results of teaching over time, rather than imposing a ‘correct’ style of teaching on a particular snapshot lesson.

Teaching is effective if it helps children to acquire knowledge, develop skills and deepen their understanding over time. Everyone involved in education knows that questioning is a fundamental teaching skill, and good questioning is questioning that helps achieve these same results.

Importantly, questioning has been the only classroom teaching skill which has appeared in the school inspection handbook in recent years, and this is still the case in the latest (September 2015) version. Questioning is mentioned in the descriptors for both Outstanding and Good teaching.

Ofsted and its individual inspectors are prevented from endorsing specific products, but the following are comments made by inspectors and staff about the teaching found in schools which have adopted Active Questioning:

‘Teachers’ use of questions is developing well. Questions challenge the students to think, and justify their point of view, rather than to repeat information the teacher has recently given.’

Inspection report for East Midlands school

‘The school has worked hard recently to develop teachers’ questioning to enhance assessment and promote high challenge. This is working well in many classes.’

Inspection report for West Midlands school

‘Children respond positively to the well-focused questioning used by staff. For example, in one Reception Year class the teacher’s questioning enabled children to learn quickly how to adjust the flow of water through a series of drainpipes.’

Inspection report for West Midlands school

‘There was excellent questioning in outstanding lessons and it was the use of questioning linked to the learning objective that often finalised the judgement. He saw staff using the technique of extracting longer answers from students and I explained how that was underpinning our literacy work.’

Headteacher of a school being inspected for PSHE provision

‘Good probing and challenging questioning is used in the best lessons to develop understanding and enhance students’ confidence. In all PSHE lessons, students are encouraged to give full, rather than one word, answers.’

HMI commentary from the above subject inspection

‘Just wanted to thank you again for yesterday. I have had meetings with staff at both schools this morning and without exception they thoroughly enjoyed the Active Questioning – in fact they were raving about it! Some didn’t realise that the time was 5pm! Always a good sign. I have no doubts it is being used in the classroom as I write.’

Norwich headteacher after face-to-face session

‘Proficient use is made of open-ended questions to develop pupils’ communication and thinking skills, and good use is made of pupils talking in pairs, which allows them to share ideas with each other.’

Inspection report for the above Norwich school

For more on Active Questioning and inspections, see the Ofsted section.