Convergent and Divergent Questioning Strategies

Convergent and Divergent Questioning Strategies

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  By Greeshma Raj
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  Convergent questions arethose that typically have one correct answer 01 The nature of the question does not demand creativity . 02 It is about narrowing down, refining or honing in on something 03 Multiple choice question is an example. 04 05 06 Encourage student responses to converge or focus on a special theme Short, factual answers
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  Question with nospecific answer, but rather exercises ones ability to think broadly about a certain topic. Stimulate student creative or critical thinking, encouraging students to be better observers Discover information for themselves, analyze data, make inferences, and identify relationships. Writing an essay and brainstorming are examples
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  The questions teachersask can be classified according to the Revised Bloom Taxonomy in Cognitive Field as “remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating (synthesizing)”. Remembering, understanding and applying steps are considered lower level, while analyzing, evaluating and creating steps are considered higher- level. Bloom’s Taxonomy
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   Questions whichare intended to recall acquired information are called convergent questions. Questions which students answer by analysis, synthesis, or evaluation using their related knowledge of a question, a problem or a situation are referred to as divergent questions. Bloom’s Taxonomy
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  According to McComasand Abraham (2005), if you want your students to recall and remember certain knowledge, ask them low- level convergent questions (Bloom Taxonomy); however, if you want to see if students understand and be able to transfer knowledge, then ask them divergent questions. Similarly, they indicated that low-level divergent questions should be asked to see if students can make inferences, find the causes and effects of an issue, and make generalizations; on the other hand, to make them speculate, make evaluations, and think creatively, they should be asked high-level divergent questions.
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  Wait Time An importantaspect of teacher questioning is wait time, a period of time during which the teacher and other students wait silently so that the student to whom the question was addressed answers the question.  Studies suggest that teachers give less waiting time to students whom they consider to be low-level  The most appropriate waiting time was determined by Rowe (1986). According to her, it is best to wait for 3 to 5 s. This duration ensures students’ success, helps them keep the topic in mind, raises the quality and length of their responses, provides more students the opportunity to answer, and encourages them to ask more questions
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  Although asking questionsis important, its effectiveness depends on how intentionally teachers choose their questions to accomplish certain goals. If the purpose of a question is not pre-determined, it might result in chaos, disorder and eventually the inability to learn. Convergent questions are most appropriate for a teacher who is performing inductive teaching. A language teacher may ask convergent questions to reveal students’ vocabulary and spelling knowledge or to motivate them. Divergent questions are mostly used for responses with application, analysis and synthesis levels. In order to use this, it requires a good preparation process Making Discussion student-Centered Wait Time Recognizing achievement Avoid multiple questions Amplify and pursue the thought Making inferences
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  Meta cognitive strategiesrefers to methods used to help students understand the way they learn; in other words, it means processes designed for students to ‘think’ about their ‘thinking’. Teachers who use meta cognitive strategies can positively impact students who have learning disabilities by helping them to develop an appropriate plan for learning information, which can be memorized and eventually routine. As students become aware of how they learn, they will use these processes to efficiently acquire new information, and consequently, become more of an independent thinker Awareness of one’s own thinking, awareness of the content of one’s conceptions, an active monitoring of one’s cognitive processes, an attempt to regulate one’s cognitive processes in relationship to further learning, and an application of a set of heuristics as an effective device for helping people organize their methods of attack on problems in general HENNESSEY, 1999 Meta cognition is often simply referred to as thinking about your thinking.
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  Assess the task Assessingthe task at hand Setting goals Choosing Strategies Plan the approach Plan the task or content sequence Planning how to accomplish the task Reflect Reflect on the learning process Assess how well the learning strategies worked and may find new strategies which again leads to the first step. Evaluate Evaluating ones own strengths and weakness Apply strategies Determining how to learn best Arranging conditions that help you to learn Assess the task Evaluate strengths and weaknesses Plan the approach Apply strategies Reflect
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