QUESTIONSQUESTIONSQUESTIONSQUESTIONS

Transforming Learning with Transforming Learning with Quality QUESTIONSQuality QUESTIONS

Questioning and Inquiry

• Questioning is the first element of Information Inquiry.

• Questioning seeds all other processes.

• Without questions the inquiry cycle stops and learning regresses into read and recite, without testing for relevance and meaning.

• Daniel Callison

Wonder and learn!• Jamie McKenzie –

QUESTIONING.ORGQuestioning is to thinking as yeast is

to bread making. Thinking without questions is uninspired, flat, inflexible, unyielding. Questioning converts thinking into something of value, transforming matter into meaning.

Questions and INQUIRY “Inquiry is not so

much seeking the right answer-because often there is none-bout rather seeking appropriate resolutions to questions and issues.”

www.thirteen.org

• “Inquiry should be motivated by questions whose purpose, meaning, or relation to the real world are apparent to the child.”

Karen Sheingold

Questions are the product of natural curiosity.

• Teachers need to yield the monopoly on the right to question.

• Learners need to be encouraged to ask questions, to wonder, and to generate new questions as inquiry proceeds.

• Student centered process depends on questions, as does the authentic construction of meaning from text.

• Daniel Callison

Questioning through inquiry – the foundation of life-long

learning

• Student ownership of questioning process leads to students becoming content experts.

• As they continue to probe and explore, students discover the questions central to the issue at hand.

• Dennis Palmer Wolf

Questions as a tool for assessment

• Renovating and revising questions, documented in journals and logs, gives an important insight to progress through information selection, analysis, and synthesis.

• Questions help learners identify issues, frame arguments, and determine what points need more convincing evidence.

• Daniel Callison

Types of questions- McKenzie

• Clarification- What was reliable, valid?• Sorting and Sifting- What is worth

keeping?• Elaborating- What is the logical next

step?• Planning- What has been done or

could be done to address these issues?

More types of ????• Strategic questions- What do I have?

What do I need? What is the best next step?

• Unanswerable questions• Irreverent questions- How can we

change this? Can we trust this?• Wonder questions-Explore

boundaries• Divergent questions- Beyond what

we have, what else might we need or want to know?

Another perspective….YouthLearn.org• Factual questions• Interpretive

questions• Evaluative

questionsInvite opinions,

thoughts, feelings

Galileo.org• HIGHER ORDER• RICH• WORTHY• ESSENTIAL• FERTILE• CONNECTED• CHARGED• OPEN

WHO? What? Where? When?• Factual, single right answer questions are only a

starting point.• Moving from trivial to essential questions

engages kids in authentic and meaningful learning.

• Factual questions in a brainstorming exercise can be used in a concept map.

• Factual questions help evaluate comprehension, help with summary.

• Factual questions lead to short term recall and need expanded context and meaning.

• CTAP Region IV

WHY? HOW? Should?SO WHAT? Which one? What if?

• BIG QUESTIONS encourage kids to think more deeply and critically.

• BIG questions stimulate students to seek information on their own.

• BIG questions are open, cannot be answered with yes or no.

• BIG questions require multiple resources to be answered.

• BIG questions must be interesting.• CTAP Region IV

Excellent Questions are…

• Open-ended• Have more than one word answer• Have more than one answer• Show effort and deep research• Lead to multiple perspectives• Lead to debate• Are interesting, not obvious• Lead to more questions and

thinking• CTAP Region IV

Essential questions…• Probe a matter of considerable importance• Move a learner from understanding to action• Are global and abstract• Go to the heart of what is important to learn

and understand• Lead to enduring truths after the facts have

been forgotten• Endure, shift, lead to larger questions• Cannot be answered completely or in few

words• Maintain interest despite mystery• Lead to other questions• Are asked over and over in the course of the

inquiry• Harada and McKenzie

Research Questions• FOCUS- Does the question focus your

research and include relevant perspectives?

• INTEREST- Are you excited about your question?

• KNOWLEDGE- Will the question help you learn?

• PROCESSING- Will the question help you understand your topic better?

• Koechlin/Zwaan

Questions as reflections

• Is my project meaningful and interesting?• Will there be useful resources I can

understand?• Have I read widely in relevant literature?• Is the information supporting my ideas

the most convincing and meaningful?• What information and search paths were

most useful? Least useful?• What information inspired me or excited

me about what I could report to others?• Violet Harada

Teacher Actions • Model questioning• Engage learners in sharing

questions and resources• Look for variety of questions and

levels of thinking• Meaning begins with information

from text– who, what, where, when.• Reward questioning, display

questions• Promote reading with questions.