Angela Maiers states in Classroom Habitudes Lesson: Curiosity-The Right Question, “The ability to ask the right kind of question, at the right time is the hallmark of a truly efficient and successful learner. Like drivers in a car, the right question can plow the road ahead or leave us stuck in a ditch along the side of the highway…I want students to see that each type of question is a tool in their thinking toolbox. A variety of “tools” may be needed to complete a project, and those tools must be chosen carefully.”
Why is questioning so important? Whenever one asks a question we are searching for something and the question is asked to help us find it. Questions open a student’s mind. Perhaps they can be likened to fishing lines, thrown out from the mind. Some questions will bring in small fish, while other, more potent questions will bring in big fish, or thoughts and ideas that can change or add new meaning to a child’s understanding. Enabling a student to ask good questions is one of the most powerful gifts we as teachers can give.
We must remind students there are different types of questions used for different purposes. The two most common types of questioning are broad questioning and focused questioning.
By definition, a broad question has no fixed limits and no fixed answer. It is open-ended and can lead to a number of answers, future changes and even more questions. It also leads to some deep thinking. On the other hand, focused questions require specific answers. These are the questions students will ask to get definitions, facts and data about a topic they are studying.
Broad versus Focused Questions
(The examples for both types of questioning are taken from the context of a science class).
Broad questions require:
1.-Open-ended answers: How are these two concepts connected?
2.-Evaluation: How would I interpret these results?
3.-Prediction: What will happen if I increase the amount of this substance? What do I think the outcome of the next part of the lab will be?
4.-Forming opinions: Do I think we tested this theory the best way? What is another way I could have done it?
Focused questions require:
1.-Recalling facts: What is the function of this structure?
2.-Defining terms: What is an [acid, mollusk, quasar, lever, vertex]?
3.-Categorizing: What characteristics do all these elements share?
4.-Confirming: Do I remember seeing this before?
So how can we help students ask the best, most effective questions; the ones that will pull in the really big fish? Here are some ideas and suggestions received from teachers:
We teach them how to use broad & focused questions:
Broad
Encourage students to ask questions that cannot be answered with a simple “yes” or "no."
Challenge students to ask open-ended questions.
Model by asking questions that require some imagination and often have no set answers.
Focused
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Use a list of "wh" words (who, what, when, where, why, how, which) to help students form questions.
Remind the class that when we ask questions, we hope to get more information about the subject.
Model by asking specific questions such as:
“What year did Alaska become a state?” “What is the longest river in the world?”
In instruction, we should aim to help students discover how to ask powerful and significant questions. We should help them discover that the questions they ask, or fail to ask, are more important than the answers they give.
Next weekend, we will look at how Bloom’s Taxonomy fits into our journey to find good questioning techniques.
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