Why the Questions You Ask Matter More Than You Think

Most primary teachers ask a lot of questions. Research suggests it can be close to 400 a day. But quantity and quality are different things, and in science lessons particularly, the type of question you ask has a direct effect on how deeply children think, how much they stay engaged, and how well you understand what they actually know.

This post pulls together some practical ideas on questioning in primary science: the different types of questions, how to structure them through a lesson, and some simple techniques that make questioning more inclusive and more informative.

This video forms part of a longer Primary Science course on Udemy. Access the full course here.

Closed Questions and Open Questions

It helps to start with the basics. Closed questions require a short, specific answer: yes or no, a single word, a simple fact. They are pitched at the recall end of thinking. Examples might include: which parachute fell slowest? Did all your cress seeds germinate? Is wood a conductor or an insulator?

These questions are not without value. They are useful at the start of a lesson, for checking vocabulary, or for getting the class settled into a topic. The issue is that if closed questions dominate your teaching, you are mostly checking whether children can remember things, rather than whether they can use what they know.

Open questions are the ones that create space for thinking. They begin with words like what, why, how, describe, predict. They invite children to explain their reasoning, connect ideas, or consider what might happen. How did the size of the parachute affect how fast it fell? What conditions does a plant need to grow well? These questions do not have a single correct answer and that is precisely the point. They require children to think rather than just retrieve.

In primary science, a useful distinction comes from Paul Black and Christine Harrison’s work in Science Inside the Black Box, where they describe questions as either “skinny” or “rich.” Skinny questions check facts and vocabulary. Rich questions ask children to link ideas, apply their understanding, or give reasons for what they have observed. A healthy science lesson needs both, but most lessons could benefit from more of the rich variety.

Using Bloom’s Taxonomy to Plan Your Questions

Bloom’s Taxonomy gives teachers a framework for thinking about the range of questions used in a lesson. At the lower levels, you have recall and comprehension: what is it, when did it happen, can they explain it back to you? Moving up, you get into application and analysis: how would you test this, why did this happen, what would change if we altered one of the variables? At the higher levels, you are asking children to create or evaluate: could you design a fair test for this, is this a good way of finding out the answer?

The important thing here is not that every lesson needs to reach the highest levels of Bloom’s, but that you are consciously building through a sequence. Start with lower-order questions to establish shared knowledge and vocabulary, then move towards questions that push children to think more critically as the lesson develops. Planning a rough question sequence before you teach a topic takes time but makes a real difference to the quality of the discussion you get.

Questioning Techniques Worth Using

Asking a question and taking the first hand that goes up gives you one child’s answer and very little information about everyone else. A few simple techniques change that.

Think-Pair-Share gives every child time to think, then discuss with a partner, before anything is shared with the class. This is particularly useful with complex questions where children benefit from rehearsing their thinking before committing to an answer.

Cold calling means the teacher selects who answers rather than waiting for volunteers. The important detail here is to ask the question first, then name the child. If you name the child first, everyone else switches off. Ask the question, give a moment for thinking, then choose. Done consistently and with a supportive tone, this keeps all children on task.

Mini whiteboards are one of the most practical tools for whole-class questioning. Every child writes their answer and holds it up on a signal, so you get an instant read of the whole room rather than one response. They work well for quick vocabulary checks, labelling diagrams, making predictions, or recording variables. The practical detail matters: establish a clear routine for distributing and collecting them, and use a “3, 2, 1, show me” signal so boards go up at the same moment and children are not looking at each other’s answers first.

Bounce it is a useful variation for children who are unsure. A child who cannot answer can choose to “bounce” the question to a classmate, who explains their thinking; the original child then has to relay that explanation back. It reduces the pressure of not knowing while keeping everyone accountable.

Hinge Questions: Knowing When to Move On

A hinge question is a short, specific check that sits at a key point in the lesson, typically after you have introduced a new concept and before you move on to something that depends on it. The question is designed to tell you, quickly and clearly, whether the class has understood what you just taught.

Hinge questions work best when they are closed or multiple choice, so there is a clear correct answer and a clear set of misconceptions to look out for. Paired with mini whiteboards, they let you scan the whole class in a few seconds.

Before moving from how sunlight helps plants grow to how roots absorb water, for example, you might ask: what do plants use sunlight for? If most children can tell you that plants use light to make energy for growth, you are ready to move on. If a significant number of them are unsure, it is worth a brief re-explanation before progressing rather than building the next concept on shaky foundations.

The key habits around hinge questions are: plan them in advance as part of your lesson design rather than improvising them; keep the language simple and avoid jargon; and anticipate the wrong answers, because the misconceptions tell you as much as the correct responses.

Encouraging Children to Ask Their Own Questions

It is worth noting that as children move through school, they tend to ask fewer questions, not more. Research by Susan Engel found that preschool children ask roughly one question every two minutes; by Year 5, that can drop to as few as one question in two hours. Some of that is developmental, but some of it is the classroom environment.

Simple things help. A wonder wall, where children write their questions on sticky notes and add them to a display, gives children a low-stakes way to record what they are curious about without interrupting the lesson. A question journal in the back of their science book serves a similar purpose. KWL grids (what do I know, what do I want to know, what have I learned) prompt children to articulate their questions before a topic begins.

The Great Science Share website has some good resources for this, including question frames and prompt cards that help children generate their own investigable questions. Worth bookmarking.

Classroom Application: Three Things to Try

1. Record yourself or ask a colleague to observe one science lesson. Tally how many questions you ask and sort them roughly into skinny/rich or closed/open. Most teachers find the balance is more skewed than they expected. The data gives you something concrete to work with.

2. Plan a question sequence for your next science topic. Before you teach, write down five or six questions you will use at different points in the lesson, ranging from recall at the start to more open reasoning questions as the lesson develops. It does not need to be exhaustive; even a rough plan changes the quality of what you ask.

3. Introduce mini whiteboards as a routine part of one lesson per week. Set up a consistent system for distributing and collecting them, practise the “3, 2, 1, show me” signal, and use them for at least two or three check-in moments per lesson. Within a few weeks, it becomes automatic.

In Summary

Questioning is one of the most powerful tools a teacher has, and in science it is particularly important because it directly shapes how children learn to think about evidence, prediction, and explanation. Small adjustments to the types of questions you ask, when you ask them, and how you gather responses from the whole class can make a significant difference to the quality of learning in your lessons. None of this requires extra resources or preparation time once the habits are established.

This video forms part of a longer Primary Science course on Udemy. Access the full course here.