A Coaching Guide to Asking Reflective Questions: Part 1

Take a minute to think of your coaching toolbox. What are some of your go-to questions? Go ahead and list a few.  

Now reflect on those questions.

• What are the types of questions you use?
• Why do you use those questions?
• How do you know when to use one question versus another?
• How do you know when a question is effective?
• How do you adapt your questions based on the teacher’s responses?
• How do you use questions to sustain a back-and-exchange with teachers?

This blog series is going to address these reflections and support your effective use of questions to prompt teacher reflection and growth in myTeachstone. We’ll start by unpacking the different types of questions you might use and why.

Though we know that open-ended questions are the best way to prompt teacher reflection, it helps to remember that we want to do this with intentionality. And to ask questions intentionally, we need to think about what response we are hoping to get from a teacher and which question would be best at getting that answer.

Let’s look at this example using a myTeachstone video: Lights Out Freeze Game.

Now, imagine you have just completed an informal observation on this teacher, focused on how she is using Behavior Management strategies during the clean-up transition from free play to small group time. You noticed several effective moments including clear and consistent expectations, monitoring of the classroom, and redirection when appropriate. You also noted moments to build on--including inconsistently anticipating problems and attending to children’s positive behavior.

Your goals for the feedback conference are to help the teacher:  

• Identify which moments are effective and which are less effective
• Compare what is happening in these interactions
• Analyze the impact these moments have on the children’s behavior and the learning time in the classroom
• Brainstorm next steps to enhance her application of effective Behavior Management

Here we have identified four types of questions you might ask based on your goals for the conversation, the teacher’s learning goals, and the specific observation at hand: identification, analysis, comparison, and brainstorming.

Given those types of questions, let’s look at some specific questions you could use.

Here you can see several effective questions with various goals for teacher learning. Used together, these questions can help the teacher think about specific interactions in her classroom, analyze those moments, and brainstorm ways to implement her effective behaviors more consistently.

And this is just the beginning! In addition to the ones above, you might ask questions that:

• Elicit the teacher's perspective
• How did it feel to …?
• How comfortable are you …?
• Encourage evaluation
• What did you want the children to learn in …?
• What conclusions can you draw about…?
• Make connections or integrations to the real world 
• Tell me about a time you …
• How is this behavior like …?
• Encourage planning
• What skills might the children gain through …?
• How can you include [this behavior] to support that learning?
• Facilitate prediction
• What might happen if …?
• How do you think the children would respond if ...?
• Prompt thought processes
• Tell me about your decision making in that moment.
• How do you know …?

Let’s go back to the beginning and look at your list of go-to questions. In what category do they fit? How do these categories change how you think about your list of questions?

Please share your ideas, as well as other categories or questions that you have found especially effective in conferences!