Stimulating student learning

Open-Ended

in the classroom
Questions
A class-room strategy for promoting
divergent thinking
Can anything beat the feel-good factor of finding the perfect
response to a question in the classroom? This article describes
how giving students the opportunity to explore and study a
concept through open-ended questions gives them a variety of
paths to understanding and bursts the myth that the shortest
road to mathematical success is the ‘right answer’.

R. Athmaraman

T
his writer has a mobile phone, which when unlocked,
displays the question, “How are you today?” This is one
of the simplest examples of an open-ended question. We
can think of other such examples, such as: “What did you feel
after reading this article?”, “How interesting was your mathe-
matics class yesterday?” These are in direct contrast with what
are known as “closed-ended” questions, such as “What is the
colour of the silk-sari you purchased yesterday?” “How much
increment did you receive in your salary?”

For a maths teacher, open-ended questions offer several

advantages, one of which is that they encourage students to
speak and express themselves at length, and this is absent in
traditional teaching. We illustrate this with a small example of a
question for a 7-year old.

Vol. 1, No. 2, December 2012 | At Right Angles 37

 Teacher A: What is 7 plus 6? Concepts of mathematics get connected to their
areas of application. This is a consequence of the
Learner: 13.
fact that when learners respond to open-ended
The question is specific and the respondent has questions, they look into the background of the
simply to state a ‘fact’. The question is straightfor- underlying concept.
ward, and the answer is simple and predictable.
By their intrinsic nature, the open-ended ques-
Teacher A, in fact, indirectly controls the response
tions are a versatile tool for teachers handling
of the learner. This variety of question is closed-
any level of mathematics. The modus operandi of
ended.
teacher B, who asked for a pair of numbers with
Here is teacher B who uses the same fact in a a sum of 13, is so strikingly simple that it can be
different way. adopted at any stage of instruction for any grade.
Here are some examples:
Teacher B : Give me two numbers that add
up to 13. • Find two numbers whose product is 1.5

The question provides for an assortment of cor- • The difference of two fractions is 4/5. What
rect and sensible answers. A learner comes out could the fractions be?
with the answer “9+4” and this ignites an admi- • Find an algebraic expression which has
rable discussion with other learners. They enthu- (2x - 3) as a factor.
siastically suggest more pairs of numbers with the
• Give the measures of a pair of angles that are
total 13. The same question will receive a differ-
supplementary.
ent kind of response when asked to a 12-year old.
The student may then give the combination • List two vectors whose scalar product is 10.
5.6+7.4, or even 23 + 25 . Often in a situation
• The probability of an event is 2/3; what could
such as this, one can find learners competing with
be the event?
one another to exhibit their perception, compre-
hension and awareness. There is a lot of ‘why’ • The sine of an angle is 1/2. Find the angle.
and ‘how’ from the novice. The query encour- • Provide an instance of a situation where
ages students to dig into their understanding and L’Hopital’s Rule will be needed.
impressions. The reason is that the question is
• Give an example of a non-commutative group.
open-ended. It presents a challenging situation
to the student, who thereby has control over the Observe that the responses to the above questions
response, quite unlike the situation created by a demand not only the comprehension of concepts
closed-ended question. but also a command of the processes and skills
for applying and manipulating them. Additionally
An enterprising teacher will bring into play
they train the learner’s mind to logically justify his
adequate number of open ended questions to
or her viewpoint and the solution. This remark-
motivate, introduce or clarify concepts. Such
able advantage makes the open-ended questions
questions encourage Divergent and Reflective
superior to other varieties.
Thinking. When they are employed in the math-
ematics class, the instructor can expect a range Teachers are quite familiar with the technique of
of responses and can thereby make progressive asking traditional type of closed-ended questions
cognitive demands on students. They help learn- such as “Find the LCM of 12 and 15”, “What is the
ers put their heads together to make sense of arithmetic mean of 5, 13, 26 and 103”, etc. With a
mathematics. little more planning and innovation, one can ‘cre-
ate’ quite a variety of open-ended questions just
The learners recognize the defining character-
by slightly altering the traditional presentation.
istics of the underlying concept, discuss various
Let us list some examples:
ideas, reason mathematically and ready them-
selves to conjecture, invent and solve problems. Here are some more examples:

38 At Right Angles | Vol. 1, No. 2, December 2012

 Closed-Ended Open-Ended
Add the first three natural numbers which are not The sum of three natural numbers, none of which
multiples of 3. is a multiple of 3, is 20. What are the numbers?
Can 6 be the HCF of 24 and some number n? Can 7
What is the HCF of 24 and 36?
be the HCF of 24 and some number n?
How many lines of symmetry does a trapezium Give an example for a quadrilateral that has no
have? line of symmetry.
The perimeter of a rectangle is 28 cm and its The perimeter of a rectangle is 28 cm. What might
length is 8 cm. Find its area. be its area?
What number when rounded to the nearest tenth
Round 23.45 to the nearest tenth.
will give 23.5? Substantiate your solution.

1 2 Can the square of a number be smaller than the

or c m ?
1
Which is bigger, number itself? Justify your answer.
3 3
Draw a rectangle and the middle lines of its sides. Draw a rectangle and colour 75% of the rectangle.
Then colour 75% of it in red. Do you get a unique answer? Explain.
Two of the sides of a triangle are 5 cm and 6 cm
Draw a triangle whose sides are 5 cm, 6 cm and 7 long. Draw the triangle. Argue how your construc-
cm in length. tion is appropriate.
Why are manhole covers circular? List a few
What is the shape of a manhole cover? objects or tools around you whose shapes directly
relate to their uses.

State the line of symmetry of the quadratic func- Find a quadratic function whose line of symmetry
tion x2 + 4 is the y axis.
Show that the roots of the quadratic x2 – 9 are Find a quadratic function whose roots are equidis-
equidistant from the origin tant from the origin.

1. For a quadratic function, what is the connec- From the examples, one might have noticed the
tion between the following two properties: following: An open-ended problem may yield mul-
“Line of symmetry is the y axis” and “Roots tiple answers. Such a problem, requiring divergent
are equidistant from the origin”? What kinds thinking, may be solved by many different meth-
of quadratics have these properties? ods. There will be a great need for investigative
2. Let p(x) = x3 – x2 + ax + b. When p(x) is and reflective thinking and decision making, to
divided by x – 2 the remainder is 12. Can a justify the process and the product.
and b be found using this information? If not,
Open-ended questions are not to be confused
what further information would suffice to
with ‘opening’ questions. Opening questions
find a and b?
are simply starting points to probe into the
3. Let A and B be two points in the complex
background knowledge in the topic to be intro-
plane corresponding to the points
duced, the past experiences and the recall of the
{1 – i, i }. Find a complex number z
1–i learner. They are mostly closed-ended, although
such that if C is the point corresponding to z,
some starters could be open-ended. However,
then ∆ ABC is right angled.
experience tells us that commencing a class with
open-ended questions can spark mathematical
communication.

Vol. 1, No. 2, December 2012 | At Right Angles 39

 A teacher should use a judicious combination of when an open-ended question is asked, and not to
closed-ended and open-ended questions. Closed- hurry the student. Without this allowance of time,
ended questions alone may not provide a real the teacher may miss opportunities to spot learn-
assessment of instruction. It is necessary for the ing difficulties as well as patterns of valid but
teacher to wait for the responses of the students divergent thinking in the learners.

References
http://www.nj.gov/education/assessment/es/openended_math_scoring_manual_g34.pdf
http://www.uky.edu/OtherOrgs/ARSI/www.uky.edu/pub/arsi/openresponsequestions/mathorq.pdf
http://books.heinemann.com/math/construct.cfm
http://math.unipa.it/~grim/SiFoong.PDF
http://www.jamesrahn.com/workshops/pdf/Writing%20Open-Ended%20Question%20in%20Math.pdf

AthmARAmAN R (m.Phil, m.Ed) started his career in 1962 and has worked as a teacher, headmaster,
researcher, academic advisor and math educational consultant. he has served as Secretary of the
Association of math teachers of India (AmtI) and is currently the editor of Junior mathematician.
he has authored several books and written textbooks for NCERt and tamil Nadu State Board. he
may be contacted at [email protected]

40 At Right Angles | Vol. 1, No. 2, December 2012