Questions as a Way of Teaching

Allsup, R. E., & Baxter, M. (2006). Talking about music: Better questions? Better discussions! Music Educators Journal, 91(2), 29-33.

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There are three types of questions teachers can ask students, open, guided, and closed questions.  Open ended questions are ways the teacher may look to discover what the student knows.  There are no wrong answers in open ended questions. (ex. How did the piece make you feel? What did you imagine visually while listening to the piece?) A guided question is used be teachers to help students listen for something that is important that may have been missed in the initial listening.  (ex. Where did the dynamics go immediately soft? When did the type of sound drastically change?) A closed question is used by the teacher for the student to evaluate if the students understand the concept.  A closed question does have a right answer.  (ex. what key signature is the piece in? How do we subdivide in the time signature 6/8?) 

The three different question frameworks for music according to this article are analytical, judicial, and creative.  Analytical framework is asking questions that directly relate to the musical aspects of the piece. (ex. What is unique about the time signature of this piece?) Judicial framework is a way to ask students about their feelings towards the piece. (ex. What did you like about the piece?) Creative framework is reliant on what students would do differently or think of.  This framework is very challenging in that you have to scaffold questions starting with analytical through judicial to finally creative to fully grasp creative.  (ex. What would you do differently with the percussion parts in the ballad section?)

Questioning allows for students to be the ones responsible for their own growth and holds teachers more accountable.  If you are a teacher and you teach by lecture, if you don't have opportunities for questions throughout the lecture there is no way for you to know what the students retain or not.  I think it is important to use the socratic method of teaching because it allows students to broaden their understandings through more personal examples through questioning.  The socratic method can run into issues if students don't buy into the idea and are very introverted.  It also runs into issues if students are very enthusiastic and it hinders your ability to get through all of the material. 

FOR CREDIT: Make a new Scholarship blog post under the category MUED 371. Begin the post with the APA End Reference citation (copied from above) and then a line break. Then, paste your proofread response.