CHAPTER TWO
2c iii). Explain what a history teacher should desist from doing while employing the questioning technique?
Caution to Questioning technique
In using questioning technique, the history teacher should avoid the following:
- The learners answering-in unison. Such a response does not enable the teacher to differentiate between those who have information on the question and those who do not.
This discrimination is important because it is the basic reason of questioning. The responses come up when the teacher uses yes and no questions which tend to encourage guessing and chorus answers. For instance, a question like “Was Kenyatta a freedom fighter?” calls for a Yes or No response. Such a question should be improved on to read; “What role did Kenyatta play in the struggle for independence?”
- Asking two questions at a time because it confuses the learners as they are not sure of which part of the question to answer first, e.g. “What did you like or dislike about this topic?” This should be restated as: “What did you like about this topic?” After it has been answered, the teacher will proceed to ask: “What did you like about the topic?”.
- Vague questions which are difficult to answer, e.g. “What do you think about history?” This should be made more specific to read “What is the importance of history?”
- Leading questions that have answers within themselves. For example, “Does the president make the law or does he carry it out?” It should be improved to: “In what ways does the President help to make the legislation?”
- Repeating questions: This should not be done unless it is very necessary, repetition promotes inattention, The students wait for the teacher to repeat before they answer it. If the question is not clear, it should be rephrased.
- Ambiguous questions, e.g. “What happened after the First World War?” It should be more specific e.g. “‘What happened to German East Africa after the Firs [World War?”
- Repeating pupils’ answers: This encourages inaudible answers,
- Asking “Who can?” and “Can you tell me?” questions. Tin: response might be “nobody can” or “I cannot or I can” respectively.
Confining the questions to memory or recall. There should be questions covering lower or higher order categories. In fact, there should be a reasonable proportion of questions designed to stimulate thought.
somi 