Department of Education

Region VIII
Ormoc City Division
Ormoc City District I
ALTA VISTA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Ormoc City

SESSION GUIDE FOR ENHANCING QUESTIONING AND ACTIVE

LEARNING SKILLS FOR EFFECTIVE TEACHING
AUGUST 19, 2019

Session Title:
ENHANCING QUESTIONING AND ACTIVE LEARNING SKILLS FOR
EFFECTIVE TEACHING
Duration: 4 hours
Key understanding:
1. The participants learn to develop the ability to ask enabling questions or
questions that tap higher order thinking skills among students.
2. The participants gain knowledge, skills, and values in facilitating the teaching-
learning process to improved student performance.
Learning Objectives:
At the end of the session, the participants will be able to:
1. Provide guidelines for asking good questions in class.
2. Apply strategies to convert simple questions into more challenging ones.
3. Define what reflective teaching is.
4. Enumerate some guideline for journal keeping. Understand the ideas of
higher order thinking skill.
Resources:
Power point presentation
Management of Learning: (15 mins.)
What insights did you set from the previous LAC session about the Remedial
Reading?
Activity: (5 mins.)
Introductory:
1. Let the participants read the story ‘’The Obstacle in Our Path’’ and
answer the following questions about the story.
Training Methodology:
A. Introduction:
1. Post overhead question
 What do you think about the questions you have just answered?
 Did the questions encourage you to think about the story?
 Did they challenge you to extract the moral of the story?
  Did the questions lead you to appreciate the story based on how they
were asked?
2. Discussed the value of good questioning as an essential educational tool.
3. Introduce the strategies to convert simple questions to more challenging
ones.
B. Activities:
1. Ask the participants to change the following questions into enabling one.
 What did the king place on the roadway?
 What did the merchants and courtiers do when they came upon the
roadway?
 What was the peasant carrying on his back?
 What did the peasant find under the boulder?
 What did the purse contain?
2. Let participants present their outputs.
Possible enabling questions:
 If you were the king, would you have done the same thing? Why?
 How is the peasant’s attitude different from the merchants’ or
courtiers’?
 How similar or different would the story be if the merchants and the
courtiers were also carrying the same load on their backs?
 Make analogies between the elements of the story and your life.
 Explain the statement, ‘’the peasant learned what many did not
understand’’.
C. Abstraction:
1. Discuss with the participants the tips for asking questions.
 Ask questions that are appropriate to the student’s level of mental
development.
 Elicit thinking by asking different kinds of questions.
 Prepare questions in advance.
 Be alert for opportunities to ask questions during the class session.
 Call on students randomly to respond to question.
 Repeat or rephrase a question to help students in answering it.
 Give students adequate time to respond to your questions.

2. Elicit answers by asking the question.

Why should teachers provide ample time for students to respond to
a question?
Answer: Some students need time to think of an answer. Hence,
teachers have to provide time for them to respond. If students find it
 difficult to answer, the teacher may rephrase the question or give
clues.
D. Application:
Write down as many answers/ scenarios as you can think of on a sheet of
paper.
‘’What do you think would happen if humans produced food through
photosynthesis?’’
Possible answers:
a. We would constantly be exposing ourselves to the sun.
b. We would always feel hungry at night.
c. Machines would be invented to replace the energy coming from the
sun.
d. There would be no more use for plates and utensils.
e. Cooking will become a thing of the past.
f. Restaurants would necessarily have to change.
g. Having lunch breaks would mean going out to get doses of sunlight.
Post on the board answers given by the participants.
E. Concluding Activity:
How much have you learned?
1. Why is reflective teaching important?
2. Convert the simple questions below into more challenging ones.
a. What is photosynthesis?
b. Who is the head of the United Nations General Assembly?
c. What is the third letter of the English alphabet?
d. When was the light bulb invented?
3. Why is active learning important?
4. Why should teachers provide ample time for students to respond to a
question?
Answer:
1. Why is reflective teaching important?
Reflective teaching is thinking about one’s skills as a teacher and
constantly finding ways to improve them. It provides opportunities for
self-assessment and professional development as a teacher.
2. Possible answers:
a. What is photosynthesis?
Why is photosynthesis an important process for plants?
b. Who is the head of the United Nations General Assembly?
Explain why being the head of the United Nations General Assembly
is a challenging position for anyone?
c. What is the third letter of the English alphabet?
What do you think would happen if the third letter of the English
alphabet were removed?
d. When was the light bulb invented?
What do you think would happen if the light bulb had not been
invented?
3. Why is active learning important?
Active learning is important because it fosters learner centeredness in
the teaching- learning process. Learners are engaged in activities and
knowledge construction rather than merely ‘’passively’’ absorbing
information from teacher lectures and traditional ‘’chalk-and-talk’’
sessions. It involves strategies that facilitate discovery, cooperation,
critical and creative thinking, and fun-filled learning.
4. Why should teachers provide ample time for students to respond to a
question?
Some students need time to think of an answer. Hence, teachers
have to provide time for them to respond. If students find it difficult to
answer, the teacher may rephrase the question or give clues.