Questioning Techniques and Teachers’ Role in the Classroom

The aim of this study is to discuss the efficacy of questioning techniques of the teachers in the classroom. Proper questioning techniques are important in the teaching and learning process. Proper questioning techniques will make it easier for teachers to get feedback from students whether or not they understand the subject. This article describes some of the questioning techniques that a teacher needs to know to possess in classroom teaching and learning sessions such as attention, suitable voice. Pause, question content, and distribution of questions. This is important for enhancing student motivation and promoting positive, critical, and creative thinking among students and to improve the teaching and learning process in the classroom.


Introduction
As an educator, teachers are constantly engaged with students in teaching and learning activities while teaching a subject in the classroom. One of the most important sessions conducted by a teacher in the teaching and learning process is the question-and-answer session. Questioning is an important activity in teaching. Questioning can be used to test the knowledge of the past, with questions requiring factual answers by asking who, what, where, and when. Designing is also aimed at stimulating student thinking. These kinds of questions need to be carefully considered as they relate to more serious matters such as consequences and to use questions of how and reason. (J.S.Farrant, 1985: 310) In the question-and-answer session, teachers can practice a variety of questioning techniques and reinforce to motivate students and encourage their thinking in the classroom. Questioning is one of the most effective ways to get students involved in the delivery of the lesson. By asking questions, teachers can engage students to think about the content of a lesson and simultaneously get feedback from students to demonstrate the effect of teaching. " (Atan Long, 1980: 135) Questioning skills are very important for a teacher, and its very complex. If these skills are used effectively, the performance level of students will increase, and the teaching and learning environment will become more active and more encouraging. (Eee Ah Meng, 1989: 332

Questioning Techniques
One of the key components to creating effective teaching and learning processes is the method of questioning or questioning techniques used by teachers. Questioning by teachers in the teaching and learning process is one of the many interactions that occur in the classroom. Questioning techniques are one of the tools for achieving goals and stimulating students' mental activity. Questioning techniques is important because it can stimulate learning, develop the potential of students to think, drive to clear ideas, stir the imagination, and incentive to act. It is also one of the ways teachers help students develop their knowledge more effectively.
Teachers need to be aware that the quality of questions and the quality of the questioning when conducting teaching and learning sessions in the classroom are one of the key elements in determining the effectiveness and quality of their teaching sessions. To help students stimulate a high level of thinking, teachers must play a key role in applying the right techniques and skills to question students. Teachers should be aware of any changes that occur in the classroom, and those changes should be aligned with the objectives they want to achieve in the teaching and learning process. Teachers, therefore, need to plan carefully and take into account some of the following factors:

(i) Attention
Questioning is one of the most effective ways to make the students pay attention in the classroom. About this, the question must be addressed to the whole classroom before a student is asked to answer. " (Atan Long, 1980: 142). Teachers should also ask a question first before mentioning the name of a student to answer the question posed. This is to ensure that all students are focused on the questions that are posted. If the name of the student is mentioned first, only that particular student will pay attention in the class.
Teachers should always ask questions to all students in the classroom and not just to the students who raise their hands. In this case, the Teacher should not be influenced by the behavior of the students who raise their hands when asking a question. Often, teachers only ask questions to the students who raise their hands and do not focus on students who did not raise their hands. This is not good in the teaching and learning process. Attention and care should be given to all the students in the classroom. (Atan Long, 1980: 142) In the meantime, some students who are not paying attention will ask the teacher to repeat the question. In this case, the teacher should not repeat the question posed when asked by the student to repeat it. If the teacher repeats the question, then, of course, the student will not pay attention, so to attract the students, the teacher should mention the question only once.

(ii) Voice
One of the most important communication tools for a teacher is voice. When asking questions, teachers should make sure their voices are clear and that their tone is well-heard. The questions should be presented well and clear to the students and look forward to receiving answers. This is important to attract students to answer a question. (Atan Long, 1980: 143)

(iii) Pause
After submitting a question, the teacher should be the one to pause talking for a moment and look at the whole class. Note the verbal cues that indicate that the student is ready to respond. (Sharifah Alwiah Alsaqoff, 1983: 214) After asking questions, students should be given time to think about the answers. The time given should not be too long because if it is too long, the interest in it will fade.

(iv) Content of Questions
In asking a question, a teacher should plan the types of questions that will be asked in the classroom. In this case, it may not be necessary for these questions to be prepared in advance, but the 'axis question' needs to be designed. The axis questions should be arranged in a logical order to obtain continuity in the lesson. In a given lesson, the teacher should provide some questions like this to determine the desired direction. These questions should not be too long. (Atan Long, 1980: 144) At the same time, teachers should also ask questions that are relevant to the age and ability of the students in the class. Teachers are already aware of a student's ability in a classroom. So when asking questions, teachers can ask difficult questions to the clever and gifted students, and ask easy questions to the weak students. The simple questions posed to the weaker students will enable them to answer the question, and this will motivate them and stimulate their thinking.
Teachers should also encourage questions that imply answers. Teachers should also ensure that the words used in a question are easy to understand. Students will be confused if they do not understand the words that are used in a question. If a question is misunderstood by the students, the teacher should change his or her word, but the student should be given a chance to answer first. (Atan Long, 1980: 145)

Distribution of Questions
In asking questions, teachers should ask questions to all students in the classroom. Questions shall be given to all the students to encourage them to participate in the teaching and learning process. (Atan Long, 1980: 145) Teachers should also avoid asking questions according to the sitting position of students in the classroom. This is because students who sat in the back and on the sides of the classroom are not paying attention and in the class. So, questions need to be posed to all students so that all students can focus and participate.
In the meantime, any questions a teacher have to ask should be in place. Teachers should avoid asking questions when students are in the process of conducting a study or project. In asking questions and receiving answers from students, teachers should always help the student to come up with the correct answers by pulling these answers out of him. In this way, students will think more deeply and will try to answer the question. " (Sharifah Alwiah Alsagoff, 1983: 215)

Levels of Questions
Questions that will be posed in the teaching and learning activity should be diversified by the levels of questioning. Benjamin S. Bloom, in his book, "Taxonomy of Education Objective (1956), divides the six levels of questions into the cognitive domain. It starts with the questions of recalling facts, which are the lowest levels through the most complex and abstract levels to the highest level, which is classified as evaluation. The six levels of questions are as follows:

(i) Knowledge
Knowledge-based questions are questions that can easily digest students' memory. These types of questions should be chosen by teachers, especially when presenting new topics or ideas for students.

(ii) Understanding
After being exposed to a concept and knowledge, teachers should ask questions that are comprehensible. This means that teaching and learning activities will take place in the dimension of understanding or understanding activities.

(iii) Application
The following features of the questions involve the use of information provided to students. The application questions are intended to help students apply their knowledge through the information provided during the teaching and learning activities.

(iv) Analysis
The feature of the analysis question is that this form of question works to separate ideas. At a higher level, students will be presented with analytical questions, and teachers need to be careful so that students can follow the content of the subject and apply all the skills to them.

(v) Synthesis
Synthesis questions are questions that can help students to come up with a new idea through the initial information they are exposed to. These skills also require high skills in which teachers need to guide students until they can synthesize information.

(vi) Evaluation
At the highest level, evaluation based questions will be given to students. Evaluation means students should be able to make and maintain their justifications.

Other Categories of Questions
There are also other ways to categorize questions. It can be performed according to its main functions as follows:

(i) First-Order Questions
These types of questions are the most commonly used questions. This question is stated in sequence because it follows the sequence of disclosure of information provided in the teaching and learning activities.

(ii) Uncovered Questions
Uncovered questions are a type of question that can gradually grind out students' knowledge. This technique also requires teachers to tackle creative, clear, and easy questions so that students do not get bored.

(iii) Open-Ended Questions
Open-ended questions are a form of independent inquiry that seeks to assess students' abilities and knowledge. Also, students may ask the teacher otherwise for the purpose of obtaining further certainty and clarification. This kind of response is something that is expected of teachers to identify students' understanding.

(iv) Divergent Questions
Divergent questions are questions that can generate a lot of thinking abilities among students. Subjective questions will help students broaden the scope of their thinking, and this is very important for them to improve their thinking skills.

Conclusion
Questioning in teaching and learning sessions is one of the most important aspects of mastering knowledge. Teachers should focus on questioning techniques in the teaching and learning process to nurture students' interest and interest in learning. Questioning techniques will increase motivation and promote students' ability to think critically and creatively. Furthermore, these techniques will help students engage actively in the teaching and learning process and will stimulate the mastery of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS). Through questioning techniques, teachers will be able to explain important content so that students can understand and enable them to develop their thinking to a higher level. Therefore, questioning techniques need to be given attention by educators to produce students who can compete globally.