one can rephrase the chinese proverb: ask a man a question

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The Art of QuestioningCreating Reflective,
Thought-Full LearnersBy Lori Bryden
Curriculum ConsultantCatholic District School
Board of Eastern OntarioAugust 2004(Research
Project, Masters of Education, Acadia University)

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The Art of QuestioningCreating Reflective,
Thought-Full Learners

• Questions, not answers are at the heart of
  education (Dennis Duncan, teacher).
• I have no answers, only questions (Socrates c.
  300 BC).
• An unanswered question is a fine travelling
  companion. It sharpens your eye for the road
  (Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D.).

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How Do You Use Questioning?

• As An Instructional Tool?

• As an Assessment Tool?

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Why Teach Questioning?

• Questioning is the cornerstone of creativity.

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Why Teach Questioning?

• Research states that effective questioning
  strategies have a positive impact on overall
  student achievement.
• Knowing how to think to extend the mind beyond
  the obvious and develop creative solutions to
  problems should be the outcome of a good
  education.
• Our thinking skills affect how well we can
  receive and process new information.
• To question well is to teach well (Wilen, 1991)

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• North American children fall short in this
  critical skill. Studies show that teachers ask
  students limiting questions. From a study at the
  University of Nebraska, it is noted that based on
  questions teachers ask, 60 require only recall
  of facts, 20 require students to think and 20
  are procedural in nature. Researcher John
  Goodlad (1983) of the University of Washington
  reports that only 1 of classroom questions
  invite students to give their own opinions.

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One can rephrase the Chinese proverb Ask a man
a question and he inquires for a day. Teach a
man how to question and he inquires for a
lifetime.

• Teachers say that they teach by asking questions
  but they cant describe the types of questions
  that they ask.
• Teachers frequently say that all questions have
  merit but thats not the case with teacher
  questions. The content of the question and the
  manner in which teachers ask them determines
  whether or not they are effective.

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What is a Good Question?

• For a question to be effective, it must be
  clear, concise relevant to both the subject
  material and the student and most importantly it
  should inspire creative thinking.

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Good Questions

• Good questions recognize the wide possibilities
  of thought and are built around varying forms of
  thinking.
• Good questions are directed toward learning and
  evaluative thinking rather than determining what
  has been learned in a narrow sense.

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A Good Question

• A Good Question
• Contributes to learning
• Sparks further questions and interest in seeking
  answers
• Involves critical and creative thinking
• Goes beyond recall of basic information
• Provides challenge but is not too threatening
• Is appropriate to the learning situation and the
  student
• Builds on prior knowledge and makes connections
• Involves students in reflection and/or planning

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Asking Good QuestionsIf only I could ask the
right question (Albert Einstein)

• Ever since Socrates asked questions to provoke
  his students into thinking and analyzing their
  thoughts about 2200 years ago, educators have
  recognized the value of good questioning
  strategies. Researchers estimate that up to 90
  percent of questions asked in elementary and
  secondary school ask students to regurgitate
  information.
• The art of asking questions is one of the basic
  skills of good teaching. Socrates believed that
  knowledge and awareness were an intrinsic part of
  each learner. Thus, in exercising the craft of
  good teaching an educator must reach into the
  learners hidden levels of knowing and awareness
  in order to help the learner reach new levels of
  thinking.
• Questions serve many purposes, including
  assessing what students already know, setting the
  stage for a new lesson by piquing students
  curiousity, determining what factual information
  students have absorbed, and stimulating
  higher-order thinking so students can apply what
  theyve learned to new situations.

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Questioning and Critical Thinking

• Critical thinking has become a hot topic in
  education today. The concept of critical
  thinking is applied in all subject areas.
  Education is nothing more, nor less, than
  learning to think!
• The common feeling in education today is that
  students must become critical thinkers in order
  to assimilate and accommodate information, thus
  becoming a true learner.

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Can Thinking Skills Be Taught? Yes!

• The purpose of critical thinking is to achieve
  understanding, evaluate view points, and solve
  problems. Since all three areas involve the
  asking of questions, we can say that critical
  thinking is the questioning or inquiry we engage
  in when we seek to understand, evaluate or
  resolve. Critical thinkers distinguish between
  fact and opinion ask questions make detailed
  observations uncover assumptions and define
  their terms and make assertions based on sound
  logic and solid evidence.
• Maybe the question should be Can children be
  taught to think more effectively?

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The Griney Grollers Thinking Skills Test

• The griney grollers
• grangled in the
• granchy gak.
• 1. What kind of grollers were they?
• 2. What did the grollers do?
• 3. Where did they do it?
• 4. In what kind of gak did they grangle?
• 5. In one sentence, explain why-the grollers
  were grangling in the granchy gak.
• 6. If you had to grangle in a granchy gak, what
  one item would you choose to
• have with you and why?

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The Moral of the Griney Grollers Story

• Students can answer low-level questions without
  thinking.
• Students enter/exit classrooms with no more
  understanding of what theyve learned than The
  Griney Groller taught you!

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• Thinking is what happens when your mouth stops
  and your brain keeps working.
• (Dennis the Menace)

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• Resnick (1987) argues that a new challenge to
  develop educational programs that assume that all
  individuals, not just the elite, can become
  competent thinkers because these competencies are
  now required of all. The cognitive approach
  suggests that learners must develop an awareness
  of themselves as thinkers and learners and
  practise the approaches and strategies for
  effective thinking.

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Blooms Taxonomy and Critical Thinking

• Thirty years ago, Benjamin Bloom (1956) suggested
  that the same information can be handled in more
  and less demanding ways. Students can be asked
  to recall facts, to analyze those facts, to
  synthesize or discover new information based on
  the facts or to evaluate knowledge.

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Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis,
Synthesis, Evaluation

• Bloom proposed a theoretical ranking of the
  levels of thinking that people use. At the
  simple and basic level, Bloom suggested that
  people operate at a very concrete level of
  knowledge. Moving beyond that, people are able
  to comprehend what the facts are about and to
  some extent, they are able to manipulate those
  ideas by comparing or contrasting or even
  retelling events in their own words.
• At the next level, people are able to apply what
  they have learned from facts and comprehension.
  This level of thinking permits them to
  demonstrate knowledge, solve or apply what they
  know to new and related situations. Moving
  beyond application, the next level of thinking
  allows people to analyze what they know. At this
  level, typically they can classify, categorize,
  discriminate or detect information.

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All our knowledge results from questions, which
is another way of saying that question-asking is
our most important intellectual tool (Postman,
1979)

• The two highest levels of cognitive thought
  according to Bloom are synthesis and evaluation.
  In synthesis the individual is able to put ideas
  together, propose plans, form solutions, and
  create new information. In the evaluation stage,
  the thinker is able to make choices, select
  evaluate and make judgements about information
  and situations.

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How Blooms Relates To Our View of the Student

• Blooms Taxonomy divides the way people learn
  into three domains. It is concerned with the
  development of the whole student and the whole
  student can be said to be divided into three
  parts
• 1. What the student thinks and knows (The
  Cognitive Domain).
• 2. What the student feels about what he/she
  thinks and knows (The Affective
• Domain).
• 3. What the student does as a result
  of his or her knowledge, thoughts and
• feelings (The Psychomotor Domain).

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Blooms Taxonomy and Assessment

• Blooms Taxonomy
• Knowledge
• Comprehension
• Application
• Analysis
• Synthesis
• Evaluation

• Achievement Chart
• Knowledge/Understanding
• Application
• Thinking/Inquiry/Problem Solving

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Attributes of a Critical Thinker (Ferrett in
Peak Performance, 1997)

• Asks pertinent questions
• Assesses statements and arguments
• Is able to admit a lack of understanding or
  information
• Has a sense of curiousity
• Is interested in finding new solutions
• Is able to clearly define a set of criteria for
  analyzing ideas
• Is willing to examine beliefs, assumptions, and
  opinions and weigh them against facts
• Listens carefully to others and is able to give
  feedback
• Sees that critical thinking is a life-long
  process of self-assessment
• Suspends judgement until all facts have been
  gathered and considered
• Is able to adjust opinions when new facts are
  found
• Looks for proof
• Examines problems closely

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Elements of a Skilled Questioner

• The crucial elements of a skilled questioner are
  that they are brief and concise, are prepared to
  rephrase questions, are prepared to draw further
  responses from participants, use a variety of
  techniques, redirect questions/responses, provide
  feedback and reinforcement without repeating
  answers and spread questions around the class.  
• The ability to ask questions is an art form and
  one, which takes commitment and perseverance.
  For many instructors, it is necessary to
  pre-plan questions. Planned questions can
  provide a framework for a lesson plan and keep
  the instructor and the students on topic.

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Types of Questions The quality of the students
thinking, and subsequent responses, will be
influenced by the questioning techniques used by
the teacher.

• Closed Questions typically begin with do, is,
  can, could, will, would, shall or should. Closed
  questions usually have only one response. These
  are usually used to recall information and assess
  the prior and post activity knowledge of the
  students. When this type of question is
  necessary, follow with an open-ended question. 
• Open Ended Questions usually begin with who,
  what, when, where, or how. Open ended questions
  are useful to stimulate group discussion.  In
  open ended questions there may be many different
  responses.
• Higher level questions are questions that require
  students to work out answers rather than memorize
  them. The goal of higher level questions is to
  give the student a license to explore the
  possibilities. Bloom categorizes higher level
  questions into three categories analysis,
  synthesis and evaluation. Higher level questions
  encourage students to think more deeply and
  critically, to problem solve, inspire discussions
  and stimulate students to seek information on
  their own.

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Transforming Closed Questions into Open Questions

• Look at the type of question. Is it a closed
  question? (Only one possible answer)
• Use different language to change it into an open
  question (with more than one answer or no
  possible answer).

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Beginning to Ask Questions

• A skilfully orchestrated question and answer
  session
• causes a chain effect, in which, the instructor
  and
• students can journey from simple factual
  inquiries to
• an insightful exchange of information, ideas and
• realizations. As an instructors ability to
  engage the
• learner, and incorporate questioning techniques
  into
• the classroom increases, so will the opportunity
  of teachable
• moments.
•  
•  

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Applying BloomsBlooms Taxonomy gives a
six-fold model to comprehension.

• Here is an example of questions used with a
  simple source, the nursery rhyme Little Boy Blue,
  during a Primary environmental study.
• Little Boy Blue, come blow your horn,
• The sheeps in the meadow, the cows in the corn,
• Where is the boy who looks after the sheep?
• Hes under the haystack, fast asleep.

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Questioning with Little Boy Blue

• Knowledge (Remembering) In this picture, what is
  the colour of the boys coat?
• Comprehension (Understanding) Can you describe
  his coat in your own words?
• Application (Solving) Do you know someone like
  Little Boy Blue?
• Analysis (Reasoning) Why might he have fallen
  asleep?
• Synthesis (Creating) I wonder how he will
  explain to the farmer how the cow got into the
  corn?
• Evaluation (Judging) Does it matter if he
  falls asleep if no one ever finds out?

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The Mysteries of Harris BurdickBy Chris Van
Allsburg

• The House on Maple Street
• Knowledge What is happening in the
• picture?
• Comprehension How did you determine what is
• happening?
• Application What questions would you ask if you
• could interview the owner of the house?
• Analysis What evidence can you find that
• this is an unusual event?
• Synthesis What would happen if your house
• started to rise?
• Evaluation Based on what you know, how
• would you explain this occurrence?

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QUILT Technique

• QUILT questioning and understanding to improve
  learning and thinking. This program was
  developed to enhance student learning by
  improving teachers classroom questioning
  techniques.
• During 1991-92, the QUILT program was classroom
  tested in 13 school districts with more than
  1,200 teachers.
• The QUILT program claims to show an increase in
  teacher understanding of effective classroom
  questioning and a corresponding use of effective
  questioning practices along with an increase in
  student thinking.

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5 Stages of QUILT

• Stage 1 Preparing the question
• Identify the instructional purpose
• Pause after asking question
• Determine content focus
• Select cognitive level
•  
• Stage 2 Presenting the question
• Indicate response format
• Ask the question
• Select respondent

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• Stage 3 Prompt student responses
• Pause after asking question
• Assist non respondent
• Pause following student response 
• Stage 4 Responding to student responses
• Provide appropriate feedback
• Expand and use correct responses
• Elicit student reactions and questions
• Stage 5 Critiquing the questioning period
• Analyze the questions
• Map respondent selection
• Evaluate student response patterns
• Examine teacher and student reactions

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Questioning Dos and Donts

• 1. Pose the question first, before asking the
  student to respond.
• 2. Allow plenty of think time by waiting at
  least 5 seconds.
• 3. Make sure you give all students the
  opportunity to respond rather than relying on
• volunteers. Create a system to help you
  keep track of who you call on.
• 4. Hold students accountable by expecting and
  facilitating their participation and
• contributions.
• 5. Never answer your own questions. Do not
  accept I Dont Know.
• 6. Establish a safe environment for risk
  taking by guiding students in the process of
  learning
• from their mistakes. Always dignify
  incorrect responses by saying something positive.
  
• 7. After asking the question, the instructor
  would remove himself from the center of
• attention. It is extremely important to
  pause after a question. This silence allows the
• students the opportunity to compose their
  thoughts,. There is a direct correlation between
  
• the pause time and the quality of the
  response. Higher level questions require
• considerable time for students to
  formulate answers. A longer response time will
  foster a
• climate for students to become critical
  thinkers.
• 8. When a student asks the instructor a
  question the instructor should redirect the
  question to the class.

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Asking Questions That Foster Student Achievement

• ask questions of primarily an academic nature
• allow three to five seconds of wait time
• encourage students to respond in some way to each
  question asked
• balance responses from volunteering and
  nonvolunteering students
• elicit a high percentage of correct responses
  from students and assist with incorrect responses
• acknowledge correct responses from students and
  use praise specifically and discriminately

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Build a Questioning ToolkitQuestion finding is
the ability to go to a poem, a painting, a piece
of music a mathematical description and find a
novel direction for investigation. This ability
is difficult to teach directly, but it may be one
of the most authentic and humanely posed.

• Beginning a new unit Start a new unit by
  asking students to think of questions that could
  be asked about the topic. Students will model
  higher level questions if teachers expose them to
  this process. Teachers can categorize questions.
  Teach students that questions are like tools in a
  toolbox. They are used for different purposes.
  Thinking requires a choice of questions. Primary
  students may categorize questions according to
  Fact Questions Why Questions Imagine Questions.
  

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Critical Thinking and the Brain-Compatible
Classroom I think, therefore I am. (Descartes)

• Critical thinking ties in with the
  brain-compatible classroom. The
• brain-compatible classroom relies on a four
  corner framework
• Teach FOR Thinking Creating a rich, safe
  learning environment
• Teach Skills OF Thinking Teaching life skills
  from novice level to expert level
• Teach WITH Thinking Constructing meaning with
  intense, active involvement
• Teach ABOUT Thinking Fostering application and
  transfer with metacognitive reflection
• When the brain is challenged, it becomes engaged
  in intense activity (Sylwester, 1995 Wolfe,
  1996 Caine and Caine, 1991)

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QuestioningThe Strategy That Propels Readers
Forward

• Reasons for students to develop their own
  questions
• Increases motivation to learn
• Improves comprehension and retention
• Encourages creativity and innovation
• Teaches how to think and learn
• Provides a basis for problem solving and decision
  making.
• I wonder?

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Coding the TextSticky Note Reading

• Teachers model how to use post-it notes when
  reading both fiction and non-fiction text to
  understand the text. The students write
  predetermined symbols on the note and post it on
  the page. To differentiate between fiction and
  non-fiction text, the codes can be altered.
• Example
• Question ?
• Interesting Observation !
• Important Fact
• Learned Something New
• Confusing

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Asking Questions While ReadingCreating and
Strengthening a Readers Dialogue

• He came with his little girl. She wore her
  best frock. You noticed what good care she took
  of it. Others noticed too-idly noticed that,
  last year, it had been, the best frock on another
  girl.
• In the morning sunshine it had been festive.
  Now most people had gone home. The balloon
  sellers were counting the days takings. Even
  the sun had followed their example, and retired
  to rest behind a cloud. So the place looked
  rather bleak and deserted when he came with his
  little girl to taste the joy of Spring and warm
  himself in the freshly polished Easter sun.
• But she was happy. They both were. They
  had learned a humility of which you still have no
  conception. A humility which never makes
  comparisons, never rejects what there is for the
  sake of something else or something more.
• -MARKINGS, DAG HAMMARSKJOLD

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The 3Rs Framework for Developing Critical
Thinking

• The 3Rs Retell, Relate, Reflect
• by Susan Schwartz and Maxine Bone
• The 3Rs framework is a useful tool to help
  students learn to respond in meaningful ways.
  Students share their knowledge by retelling a
  story relating parts of the story to their own
  experiences and knowledge and reflecting by
  thinking, questioning and wondering.
• Teachers model and demonstrate the 3Rs using the
  think-aloud strategy and/or the mini-lesson
  format.

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The 3Rs and Critical ThinkingThe 3 Scoops of
Reading

• Retell (Knowledge/Comprehension)
• Relate (Application, Analysis)
• Reflect (Synthesis, Evaluation)
• (Susan Schwartz and Maxine Bone)

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Beyond Critical ThinkingCritical
LiteracyEnhancing Students Comprehension of
Text

• Students today experience a constant stream of
  ideas and information-online, in print, and
  through electronic games and mass media. They
  need to be taught how to approach all texts with
  a critical eye.
• Critical literacy provides a way for students to
  think more deeply about the texts they meet and
  the text they create. It provides a way to
  challenge the learner to look beyond the literal
  message, to read between the lines, to observe
  what is present and what is missing, and to
  reflect on the content and way the author
  constructed the text to influence the reader.
  Critical literacy goes beyond conventional
  critical thinking because it often includes
  questions about fairness, equity and social
  justice.
• Critical literacy is a lens or overlay for
  viewing texts that becomes a regular part of
  classroom practice.
• Critical literacies involve people using
  language to exercise power, to enhance everyday
  life in schools and communities, and to question
  practices of privilege and injustice (Comber,
  2001)

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Four Roles of The Literate Learner(Luke and
Freebody, 1999)

• Meaning Maker
• Uses prior knowledge and experience to
  construct and communicate meaning when reading,
  writing and speaking.

• Code Breaker
• Recognizes and uses the features and
  structures of written, visual and spoken texts,
  including the alphabet, sounds in words,
  spelling, conventions, sentence structure, text
  organization, graphics, other visuals.

• Text User
• Understands that the purpose and audience
  help to determine the way a text is structured,
  the tone, the degree of formality, and the
  sequence of components-and uses this knowledge to
  read, write and speak.

• Text Analyst
• Understands that texts are not neutral, that
  texts represent particular views and
  perspectives, and that other views and
  perspectives may be missing. The design and
  messages of texts can be critiqued and
  redesigned.

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Creating Reflective and Thought-Full
LearnersHow do I know I know?

• Reflective thinking is linked to critical
  thinking because questioning and assessing
  involve organizing, reasoning, hypothesizing and
  predicting.
•   What Do Reflective/Metacognitive Students Do?
• Question
• Link ideas to previous/predicted/current
  experiences
• Think critically
• Think creatively
• Using Thought-Full Language in the Classroom
• Use specific thinking terms rather than vague
  abstract terms
• Posing questions that cause students to examine
  their own behaviour

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Explicitly teach the language of critical
thinking-the verbs!

• Lets compare these two pictures. (instead of
  look)
• What do you predict will happen when? (instead
  of think)
• How can you classify? (instead of group)
• Lets analyze this problem. (instead of work
  this problem)
• What conclusions can you draw? (instead of what
  did you think)

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How we Know Students Are Getting Better At
Thinking We are interested in assessing not
what students know in so much as how students
behave when they dont know

• Indicators that Instructional Methods Are Paying
  Off
• Persistence When the solution to a problem is
  not immediately apparent.
• Decreasing Impulsivity Students will think
  longer before answering, make sure they
  understand before beginning a task, listening to
  alternative points of view planning strategies
  to solve problems more effectively.
• Listening to Others with Understanding and
  Empathy Some psychologists believe that the
  ability to listen to another person, to empathize
  with and to understand their point of view, is
  one of the highest forms of intelligent
  behaviour.
• Flexibility in Thinking They begin to see
  several ways to solve problems and that their
  answers arent the only one to consider.

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You may be a critical thinking teacher if

• You may be a critical thinking teacher if
• Learners are active and in continuous dialogue
  with teacher
• Learning is constructing, not feeding
• Truth is discovered, not delivered
• Teacher leads from behind
• Teacher functions as facilitator/mentor instead
  of lecturer
• Questions are answered with explanations or
  questions, not simply yes or no
• Questions rarely have one right answer
• Pertinent discussions on related issues often
  break out
• Debate is common
• Peers exchange ideas
• Learner and teacher satisfaction increases
• Teachers often face questions for which there are
  no answers
• Social interaction and acceptance in the class is
  generally high

49
The Reflective Classroom A Model to Improve
Teacher Questioning

• 1. Teacher Questioning Questionnaire
• 2. Classroom Questioning Tracking Sheet
• 3. Questioning Strategies Observation Tool
• 4. Classroom Questioning Tally
• 5. Designing Questions

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• All The Best
• In Your
• Planning!

51
References
Beers, Kylene, (2003) When Kids Cant Read What
Teachers Can Do. Portsmouth, NH Heinemann
Publishers. Brualdi, Amy, (1998) Classroom
Questions. ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and
Evaluation, The Catholic University of
America, Shriver Laboratory, College Park,
MD. www.ericfacility.net/ericdigests/ed422407.html
Cotton, Kathleen, (2001). Classroom
Questioning. Northwest Regional Educational
Laboratory. www.nwrel.org/scpd.sirs/3/cu5/html C
otton, Kathleen, (2001). Teaching Questioning
Skills Franklin Elementary School. Northwest
Regional Educational Laboratory.
www.nwrel.org/scpd/sirs/4/snap13.html Harvey,
S., and Goudvis, A. (2000). Strategies That
Work Teaching Comprehension to Enhance
Understanding. York, ME Stenhouse
Publishers. Heffernan, Lee, (2004). Critical
Literacy and Writers Workshop. Bloomington,
INDIANA International Reading Association.
52
References

• McLaughlin, M., and DeVoogd, G., (2004) Critical
  Literacy Enhancing Students Comprehension of
  Text. New York, NY Scholastic.
• Mittelstaedt, M. (1991) A Research Proposal for a
  Study to Support That an Early Childhood
  Teachers Perception of the Importance of Higher
  Cognitive Questioning Techniques Impacts the
  Implementation of the Questioning Techniques Done
  in the Classroom. Phi Delta Kappa Educational
  Foundation.
• Morgan, N., and Saxton, J., ((1994). Asking
  Better Questions. Markham, ON Pembroke
  Publishers.
• Muth, Jon, ((2002). The Three Questions. New
  York, NY Scholastic Press.
• Schwartz, S., and Bone, M. (1995). Retelling,
  Relating, Reflecting Beyond the 3Rs. Toronto,
  ON Irwin Publishing.
• Urbanoski, Janice, (2000). The Role of
  Questioning Techniques in the Classroom.
  www.instructordiploma.com/core/10220B/jan.htm
• Van Allsburg, Chris, ((1984). The Mysteries of
  Harris Burdick. Boston, MA Houghton Mifflin
  Publishing.
• Wolf, Dennis Palmer, (1987). The Art of
  Questioning. Academic Connections, 1-7,
  www.exploratorium.edu/IFI/resources/artofquestioni
  ng.html