How Can I Teach My Students to Ask Good Questions?

Questions represent the beginning time of discovery and innovation. To connect, analyze, and integrate new information, we need to ask questions. So the skill of asking logical questions  helps  people to think effectively, learn, discover and adapt to changes.

Why should questions be encouraged in a classroom?

“Students’ Questioning” involves them being self-motivated learners where they start comparing new instruction with background knowledge, to synthesize new ideas.

·  Through questions, students confirm that they understand and are thinking about what they are being taught in the classroom.

·   They also  provide prompt feedback on where teachers need to invest more time.

Hence “good questioning“ should be a  behavior pattern, that all instructors should try  to foster in their students.

Fostering “good questioning” among students

Inquiry-based classrooms aim for students to ask their own well-formulated questions, shaped by their background knowledge and individual curiosity. Although effective “teacher-generated questioning” strategies encourage students to think, they do  not necessarily help students to become better questioners. In formulating logical and well-considered questions, students need teachers’ guidance and assistance. Let us consider a few tips on how teachers can encourage and help students to ask good questions.

1. Create an environment where questioning  is welcomed and trusted.

·   Explain to your students that people who ask questions are likely entering new ground.

·   Reward students for asking a question. Try saying, “That’s a great question” for every new question they ask.

·   Throughout your teaching time,  leave  reasonable gaps for students to think and formulate questions.

·   Encourage your students to read books and encourage them to ask questions before, during and after reading.

·   Give a brief introduction about  a difficult concept  at the end of your class and ask students to revisit the concept before the next class. This way, students will have time to become familiar with the concept, and will be more inclined to ask questions in the next class.

·  Allot 2 or 3 days as “Inquiry days” during which students can begin classes with their own questions.

·  Provide students with question generating problems. For example, during the class put a problem on the board and let the students work it in their notes.  Provide them the right solution, but not the process of doing it. This is likely to lead to in-depth questions.

·  Model the types of queries that require deeper thinking and promote them to generate similar questions during classroom activities like read alouds and  class discussions.

2. Teach students how to create good questions.

Make students aware that the information they receive will depend on the questions they ask. So take time to teach your students  the types of questions they can generate and how to  generate them effectively. For instance, teach them about “close and open” ended questions in which closed type questions, get short answers whereas open-ended types allow for longer responses and more data. Likewise, teach them to create their questions by categorizing them as their inquiry, clarification, critical thinking and inference questions.

The Question Formulation Technique (QFT)

This technique helps students determine how to create their own questions, improve them, and how to apply them. The QFT has six key steps that help students to think deeply and learn meaningfully.

·  The Question Focus:  At this stage, teachers develop a prompt that focuses students’ questions and present the prompt or the “QFocus”  in the statement with optical or audio support. This helps students to explore more expansive ideas. Authors Rothstein and Santana, who formulated this technique give the following example of Qfocus. After teaching the causes of the 1804 Haitian revolution, a teacher presented a Q Focus: “Once we were slaves. Now we are free.” With this  clear and direct thought, the students began formulating and posing questions around this thought; “What changed and what stayed the same after the revolution”?

·  Students generate questions: Students are asked to generate questions, constrained by simple rules like – ask many questions, do not judge the quality of questions, nor pursue any responses. These rules provide a firm structure for students to generate questions  in classic “brainstorming” process, with an open-ended thinking process.

·  Students Improve Their Questions: In this stage, students have to refine their questions  by categorizing and reformulating to make them more focused to provide the desired response. To improve their skill here, they need more practice in changing their questions from one type to another. It could be helpful, if you can assist them in discussing the advantages and disadvantages of each type of questions.

·  Students Prioritize Their Questions: Based on the lesson goals, teachers have to help students in prioritizing their questions. For this purpose, students need to frame a particular number of  questions, within specific criteria and guidelines. This will help them transition from divergent to convergent thinking.

·  Students and teachers decide the  next steps: At this stage, students and teachers work  together to review and determine priority questions and then, decide how to use them for learning. For example, these questions can be used  for further reading,  discussion, and /or research.

·  Students Reflect on QFT: According to Rothstein and Santana, “Making the QFT completely transparent helps students see what they have done and how it contributed to their thinking and learning”. At this stage, teachers and students review what they have learned by generating, improving and prioritizing their questions.

3. Offer many opportunities for students to practice creating  questions

Once students have acquired a basic understanding of types of questions, guide them to their ‘true’ questions, and provide them with more opportunities to practice creating various types of questions. Include “questions only” exercises with an element of a game involved in it. For example, at the end of  your teaching session, ask your students to write down one question on that particular class. When they realize that everyone has questions, they will be more motivated  to ask questions vocally. Also, ensure that you go through the questions and answer them the next day so that they know that their questions are recognized. Classroom exercises like discussions and quizzes can be incorporated to promote generating good and effective questions.

Discuss Here:  How do you create an environment that encourages the culture of asking questions in your classroom?