Responding to Students’ Questions With (Better) Questions

Throughout my years in education, I have noticed that when students encounter a challenge, their first instinct is often to ask the teacher for the answer. For many years, my instinct was to provide it.

I wanted to keep the lesson moving and alleviate their frustration. But I realized that by responding too quickly, I was cutting off the productive struggle that is an essential part of learning. I had to train myself to pause before giving them the answer.

In both my STEAM and world language classes, I now guide students by asking the following questions:

• What were you trying to make happen?
• What did you expect would happen?
• What actually happened?
• What does that tell you?
• Is there something you could change? Why or why not?
• What do you think will happen if you make that change?

These questions are useful across disciplines because they shift the focus from simply being right or wrong to closely examining and reflecting on the learning process.

When a STEAM Project Does Not Work

In my STEAM emerging technology course, we spend a lot of time coding, especially programming robots to travel a course. When a robot turns in the wrong direction or stops before reaching its destination, students often immediately ask me to “fix it.” My earlier instinct would have been to step right in. Now, rather than identifying the error for them, I begin with my series of questions. First, I ask, “What were you trying to make the robot do?”

After students explain, I ask, “What did it actually do?” Students might say that it moved backward or it turned left instead of right, or it didn’t stop. In situations like this, I could give them the answer and save them time, but instead, I ask, “What does that tell you about where the problem might be?”

Helping them to identify the area where the problem occurred helps them to narrow in on where they might find the solution. They can look at the commands and the sequence, and they may find that they put in the wrong command. I usually ask questions about what they might change and what they think might happen when they run the program again.

When students are creating interactive scenes using augmented and virtual reality and AI, and an object does not respond as expected, I might ask, “What action was supposed to trigger the movement? Did the character reach the trigger? Which block controls what happens next?” These questions prompt students to examine the relationship between the trigger, the action, and the sequence, rather than waiting for me to locate the error.

I apply the same questioning to building challenges. If a bridge made from blocks or other materials collapses, I ask students where it first began to bend, how the weight was distributed, and whether there is anything they might change before testing it again. Their responses help me distinguish between students who understand the design concept but need to revise the structure and those who need additional support with balance, weight distribution, or structural stability.

These experiences amplify opportunities for critical thinking and problem-solving and give me the opportunity to ask questions that will push their thinking. Asking better questions leaves them in charge of their learning and finding answers on their own. It also provides information I would not receive by simply giving students the answer, and this practice is very beneficial to any course.

When Meaning Gets Lost in a World Language

I use the same questioning approach in my Spanish class. For example, if I ask one of my students, “¿Qué hiciste el fin de semana?” (“What did you do over the weekend?”) and the student responds with something unrelated, or says, “I don’t know,” I refrain from translating the entire question (which I may have done in the past) and instead ask, “What words do you recognize?”

Students may recognize “fin de semana” as “weekend” but not understand “hiciste.” Knowing this, I can then ask, “Based on the words you know, what do you think I might be asking about?” If the student says, “Something about the weekend,” I know they understand the context, even without understanding each word. I might give a few examples using the verb “hacer” and ask, “What do you notice about the verb? Can you tell if I’m asking about something you usually do, something you are doing now, or something you already did?”

The way the student responds helps me identify the area of difficulty. Is it vocabulary, recognizing a past-tense verb, or understanding the question structure? This helps me pivot and ask additional questions or provide prompts to guide them to their own response.

Sometimes students try to translate directly from English to the target language, which is not always accurate. By engaging in conversation, I can ask, “What were you trying to communicate? Can you think of an example we have used that expresses age?”

Questions like these connect students with their prior knowledge. They also give me insight into whether the student understands the meaning but needs help remembering a language pattern, or if they do not yet understand the concept.

Making Student Thinking Visible

These conversations are beneficial for formative assessment because students’ explanations show how they reached their answers. I can then identify misconceptions and decide whether to work with the individual student, work in a small group, model another example, or pause and revisit part of the lesson with the whole group.

My goal is to provide the right amount of support at the right time for each student. The difference between what I was doing and what I am doing now is that my support is based on evidence from their thinking rather than my assumptions about what they do not understand.

The more frequently I use this approach, the more students begin to internalize these questions. It helps them develop metacognitive skills and take time to pause and ask themselves questions: What was I trying to do? What happened instead? What information does that give me? What can I try next?

Sometimes our most effective response to a student’s question is a better question of our own.