QUESTIONS

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QUESTIONS

• Transforming Learning with Quality QUESTIONS

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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

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Wonder and learn!

• Jamie McKenzie QUESTIONING.ORG
• Questioning 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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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?

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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?

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Another perspective.

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

• YouthLearn.org
• Factual questions
• Interpretive questions
• Evaluative questions
• Invite opinions, thoughts, feelings

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.