Leading Classroom Discussion
The strategic use of questioning is the perfect forum/opportunity to lead the classroom discussion on a subject to promote student centred approach to communication and inquiry. Traditionally most talking in the classroom is done by the teacher (whom the floor or the stage belongs to) and this generally equates for 60% of the time (Glosser 2000). Questioning can be used at the start of the lesson to drive the direction of the lesson, though careful generic questioning can assist the students to plan their inquiry (Wilson 2013). Minimal teacher input can be achieved through correct guiding the flow of the discussion by the teacher to progress and keep the classroom discussion on topic. Wilson (2013) and Vogler (2005) argued that asking questions and leading the classroom discussions can have positive effects on student learning as connections can be made to prior knowledge and cognitive growth can be stimulated. Pearson (2014) outlines using a structured objective that incorporates a solicited high order question, followed by waiting, then allowing the student to respond and finally commenting on this as one method to lead classroom discussions.