To summarize the author’s answer to this question, effective questions are those that lead, eventually, to answers that indicate the student understands what’s going on beyond a terse answer that might just be memorized. In assessing the answers, it’s simply a matter of ensuring that the terse answer isn’t all the student knows. Often, that means you ask more questions, including how and why we know what we know. Last, avoid making assumptions about a student’s understanding. Get explicit answers that indicate understanding.