3 Ways to build student collaboration through teacher questioning

Benefits of student collaboration in the classroom

Apart from the fact that many of our syllabi require that we teach the skill of effective student collaboration, there are so many benefits for students if this is promoted regularly in a classroom setting.

Some of these benefits include: 

• Building communication skills
• Learning to navigate various personalities
• Improving peer relationships and respect
• Increased retention of knowledge
• Promoting critical thinking, problem solving and patience
• Learn how to take on different roles in a group
• Develops leadership skills

Knowing this, how can we build student skills in collaboration? How can we do this quickly and effectively in the classroom?

The art of using teacher questioning to build student collaboration skills is a worthwhile strategy to use as it is easily embedded into a normal lesson.

3 ways to build student collaboration using teacher questioning

Teacher questioning is the classic ‘go to’ activity to get lessons started and involves asking students questions to check for understanding. Teachers use questioning at this point in the lesson to remind the class of the learning done so far and they use the data from the responses to set the pace and depth of the rest of the lesson.

Tweaking the normal questioning routine with a few simple additions also promotes the development of student collaboration learning attributes.

1. Question – pair share – response

How to conduct a pair share response:

1. Ask your question
2. Allow 30 seconds for students to pair share 
3. Elicit responses

Every student is involved in the thinking time and engages with the question. In this dynamic, students are using their strengths to share ideas and actively participate in learning from others.

After 30 seconds most students will feel confident to respond in front of the class as the risks of getting it wrong have been reduced.

2. Mini whiteboard hovering

How to use mini whiteboard hovering:

1. Ask your question
2. Students respond by writing their response on mini whiteboards 
3. Student hover the mini whiteboards with writing side down in front of them
4. After everyone has written a response and has their whiteboard hovering, students reveal responses by flipping their whiteboard up.

Every student is engaged with thinking about the question and has to commit to a response.

They practise the learning habit sharing their knowledge in a group setting and taking risks.

The teacher collects data from the whole class to inform groupings for the rest of the lesson and to highlight where learning interventions might be needed.

This technique also allows students to notice that we all need time to think and retrieve information before responding.

3. Brain Book Buddy

How to use the ‘brain book buddy’ strategy:

1. Ask a more complex question 
2. Give students 2 minutes of silence to retrieve information from their brain
3. Then allow 2 minutes of silence to use information from their book
4. Then allow 2 minutes of buddy time to discuss the best response
5. Elicit responses from several different groups

Having given students time to think about the problem and then boost the quality of the response with their own notes, students are encouraged to co-construct the best response by working as a team.

In the discussion of the best response, students will bring their ideas and simultaneously support others whose responses lacked clarity or depth.

Conclusion

Each of these strategies are so easily embedded into any lesson with little to no preparation required. Using these strategies will enrich your students’ learning experience and help to build student collaboration. 

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