Active listening and questioning are essential skills for peer tutors who want to help their tutees learn effectively and independently. In this article, you will learn how to use these skills in the context of peer tutoring, and what are some of the best questioning techniques to assess your tutees' understanding.
Active listening is the process of paying attention, showing interest, and responding appropriately to what your tutee is saying. This helps to build rapport, clarify doubts, and provide feedback. To practice active listening, use verbal and non-verbal cues such as nodding and smiling to show that you are listening. Paraphrase or summarize what they have said to check your comprehension and demonstrate that you are following along. Ask open-ended questions to encourage them to elaborate, explain, or give examples. Reflect or mirror their emotions, feelings, or attitudes to show empathy and understanding. Lastly, try to avoid interrupting, judging, or giving advice prematurely.
Maintaining neutrality can be a powerful way to encourage your students to further explore their ideas and think from different perspectives. This can elevate their curiosity and support them in developing more clarity around their thoughts. Even if you want jump up and down and shout, "WOW - I LOVE that idea!", consider something more neutral like, "Interesting. What else are you thinking around that idea?" You might be amazed by the thoughts and ideas that begin to emerge!
Questioning is an effective way to assess a tutee's prior knowledge, learning progress, and comprehension level. To practice questioning, you should plan questions ahead of time, based on the learning objectives and the tutee's needs. Additionally, use a variety of question types, such as factual, conceptual, procedural, or metacognitive questions. Ask one question at a time and ensure your tutee has enough time to think and respond. Probing or follow-up questions are also useful for prompting your tutee to elaborate, justify, or clarify their answers. Finally, provide positive or constructive feedback to acknowledge your tutee's efforts and correct any misconceptions.
Have you ever had a child ask you why over and over again? In my experience, being asked why until I could not answer forced me to realize my true depth of understanding. Asking a tutee why they give an answer and, even more importantly, giving them a chance to think about why will show their true level of understanding and identify gaps in knowledge. Foundational concepts and facts are crucial to this deeper understanding, but I see that portion of learning as a job for instructors and independent practice problems/questions. In my opinion, a tutor needs to push beyond that base level knowledge by asking thought provoking questions rather than asking what the tutee has memorized.
Using questioning techniques to assess your tutees' understanding can be very helpful, and some of the most common and useful ones are the Socratic, funnel, and reverse methods. The Socratic method involves asking a series of questions to guide your tutee to discover the answer or solution themselves, which helps them develop critical thinking, problem-solving, and self-regulation skills. With the funnel method, questions start from broad and general, then gradually narrow down to specific and detailed. This supports your tutee in organizing their thoughts, recalling relevant information, and applying their knowledge. Lastly, the reverse method starts from specific and detailed questions that widen to broad and general ones. This helps your tutee synthesize their knowledge, evaluate their understanding, and relate their learning to other contexts.
In order to use questioning techniques effectively in peer tutoring, you should align your questions with the learning goals and outcomes of the session. Additionally, you should adapt your questions to your tutee's level of readiness and confidence. It is also important to balance your questions with your tutee's questions, and to encourage them to ask their own questions. Furthermore, you should monitor your tutee's responses and adjust your questions accordingly. Finally, you should review and summarize the key points and takeaways at the end of the session.
To improve your active listening and questioning skills, observe and learn from other effective teachers or peer tutors. Request feedback from your tutees, peers, or mentors to identify areas for improvement. Take time to reflect on your performance and set specific goals to track your progress. By utilizing these techniques, you can create a positive, collaborative learning environment that will benefit both you and your tutee. Active listening and questioning can be powerful tools in helping your tutees reach their learning objectives.
Managing your stress and energy can help you become more present in your tutoring sessions. When you're stressed, overwhelmed, or over-scheduled with too much on your mind, it can be hard to be fully present and you may find yourself wanting to 'rush' to the next thing on the agenda - not conducive to active listening OR asking thought-provoking questions. Before your sessions, consider taking a few deep breaths and creating space where you can pause and clear your mind. When you show up from an energized place, your students will feel this. Conversations will be more authentic, it'll be easier to create a truly collaborative space, and you'll be able to listen with the intent to understand, respond, and deepen the learning.