Are teachers bad at asking questions?

Question

Since joining this site about a month ago, I often see a lot of debate over "what is the question about?" and the manner and wording of questions, especially mine, ahem. For example, the comments to this question about which loop should be used try to revise the question in one way, then a different way. The actual wording asks the question in several different ways (which I am guilty of also) because the Asker is actually struggling to formulate the question. They don't know the answer, or what could be an answer, so the question cannot be clear right from the start!

Is this a sign of teachers being better at teaching than asking, or is this just something that comes up on this kind of site? (See? I asked it two different ways with opposite intended answers. Do you just hate that, or not?)

Answer 1

I think there are a couple issues at play here.

The first and maybe foremost is getting people acquainted with the SE format for asking questions, especially since a lot of questions here can toe the line between "good subjective and bad subjective." We also bring together a wide range of backgrounds and experiences since education is a broad community hence the need for specificity.

You hit on another important point:

"the Asker is actually struggling to formulate the question. They don't know the answer, or what could be an answer, so the question cannot be clear right from the start!"

Askers should not be using questions as a form of external processing to (eventually? hopefully? maybe?) get to a clear question.

If a question cannot be clear from the start it a) should not asked, or b) should be addressed in the chat referenced by @thesecretmaster.

I remember going to a conference a few years back that had a couple sessions on asking good questions. As a former English teacher, I often had to struggle to ask just the right question to spur student discussion on whatever literary work we were studying. One of the key facts I learned both from the conference research and from experience is this: asking a follow-up question to clarify an initial question rarely if ever clarifies it.

If one needs to use a question to clarify another question, he or she is not asking it well. One well-worded question is all that should be necessary. As I reflect on my practice, I do think I was not a good question-asker to start, and research bears out this fact for most teachers. It is hard to ask one question and let the classroom be silent for several seconds as students process it. The temptation is to fill the silence with another question in the hopes that it will inspire a response, but it is actually counter-productive.

Asking good questions is a craft that experience and reflection (and training) can improve, which is why we spend so much time and energy invested in improving questions in this community.

Answer 2

We actually have already seen this issue and jumped to address it. We now have a question help room and a question sandbox which feeds into the question help room. There are some users who lurk over there to try and help anyone who needs help.

Answer 3

There is an old platitude about preferring substance over form. From my experience of working with people, I get a lot farther by listening and not interfering. It doesn't matter how messy the form of the question is, answer what is being asked or just wait for more clarity to arrive. I have actually looked at questions years after I first saw them, and finally 'got' what it was about.

My father used to say two very important things:

1. when people are giving you driving directions, don't interrupt!
2. only one person talks to the dog (at a time).

Otherwise, everyone gets confused. To paraphrase Steven Covey and my meditation teacher: "Seek first to understand, or we are all on a hiding to nothing."