The American heritage dictionary describes monitoring as scrutinizing or checking systematically with a view to collecting certain specified categories of data (Cotton, 1988). Another definition for monitoring that is more closely related to the field of education is, “activities pursued by the teacher to keep track of student learning for purposes of making instructional decisions and providing feedback to students on their progress”(Cotton, 1988). Both definitions accurately describe what effective teachers do when they monitor students’ performance and understanding of lesson material. Research shows that there is a strong correlation between effective student monitoring and student achievement(Cotton, 1988). Teachers who regularly implement effective monitoring strategies into their classrooms have more students who succeed academically. Monitoring is an essential component of the learning process and effective teaching; there are various types of monitoring strategies that knowledgeable and productive teachers use in the classroom.
Questioning, is a monitoring strategy that is commonly used in the classroom. Teachers can implement questioning strategies into their instructional activities in a variety of ways. During classroom discussions, they can question students to check their understanding of the lesson material that was taught. Also, they can circulate around the classroom and interact with students one on one by helping them with independent practice and giving them substantive feedback. Moreover, teachers can conduct periodic reviews with students to discover whether or not they have a good understanding of learning material. Such questioning strategies help teachers identify any gaps into students’ knowledge and understanding(Cotton, 1988).
As can be clearly seen, there are many ways to incorporate questioning strategies into the classroom. However, in order to produce great gains in