Opening Questions involves the educator guiding students to provide an overview of previously-covered content via questioning, rather than the educator providing it themselves, before introducing new information.
Instructions
At the start of each lecture, or before introducing a new topic, pose a question about the topic previously covered and ask volunteers to share a response.
Here are some example Opening Questions from Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning (p.29):
- “Before we start, can anyone remind me what we talked about in class on Monday? How about what we were working on last week?”
- “Before I introduce the third major theory we will explore in the course, what have been the two main theories we have discussed thus far?”
- “We have seen several experiments in this area already this semester. Can someone remind me of the results we observed?”
Resources
N/A
Variations
- Make it a formalised student summary: A single student or group of students is assigned to provide a 3–5-minute summary of the previous class. By the end of the semester, each student or group should do this at least once.
- Make it flipped: Ask students to provide an overview of the content of the reading/preparatory materials assigned for the day’s lesson at the start of the class.
- Make it closing questions: Pose a question about the topic covered in the lesson and ask students to write answers, to serve as a summary of the key points of the class for their future reference.
References
ProQuest Ebook Central – Reader (anu.edu.au)
Lang. (2016). Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.