Questioning for Higher Level Thinking

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Questioning for Higher Level Thinking

• Virginia Bateman
• FCUSD

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• A Whole New MindDaniel H. Pink, Opening Keynote
• Contrary to the skill and drill emphasis in
  Americas public schools, the future belongs to a
  different kind of person with a different kind of
  mind designers, inventors, teachers and
  storytellers.

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Questions can

• Excite interest or curiosity
• Direct thinking in new and unexplored ways
• Encourage reflection
• Model thinking
• Make connections

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Good questions are tools for learning

• What other metaphors?
• Good questions are like ??
• A playground?

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Are students getting the kind of brain building
workouts with good questions at school?

• For all the good things that standards and
  standards based bubble in testing have brought to
  the educational community, it is hard to argue
  that we are now experiencing a plethora of higher
  level thinking supported by quality open ended
  questions.

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Educational Leadership February 2008

• Any subject be it physics, art, or auto repair
  can promote critical thinking as long as
  teachers teach in intellectually challenging
  ways.
• Batemans corollary
• Any activity be it soccer, doing the laundry,
  or grocery shopping can promote critical
  thought as long as parents use the opportunity to
  ask the right questions.

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The classic Taxonomy of Thinking is Blooms
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Original Terms New Terms

• Evaluation
• Synthesis
• Analysis
• Application
• Comprehension
• Knowledge

• Creating
• Evaluating
• Analyzing
• Applying
• Understanding
• Remembering

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Thinking about Blooms

• Lets consider the topic of flowers. What are
  some questions at each level?
• Remembering
• Understanding
• Applying
• Analyzing
• Evaluating
• Creating

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Difference between difficulty and complexity

• Name the fifty states in order from least to
  greatest based on the number of letters in the
  name of their capital.
• What are the important elements a state might
  consider in selecting which city would be the
  best capital?

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A student can put great effort into a learning
task that is at the lowest level of thinking.

• This is like working on a treadmill to increase
  the muscle of your upper arms. You may get some
  benefit and learn something about persistence in
  learning, but it is not aimed at the particular
  body part that you need to exercise.

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Every student needs brain exercise, but like an
athlete, students of different abilities and
background need training of different kinds
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The below average learner

• Synthesis and evaluation
• Application and analysis
• Knowledge and comprehension

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The average learner
Knowledge and comprehension Application and
analysis Synthesis and evaluation
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The gifted learner
Synthesis and evaluation Application
and analysis Knowledge and comprehension
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Can creativity be developed?

• Yes and good questions are the vehicle
• How many ways can you think of to catch a fish?
• Please give at least 20 ways

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Questions that produce creativity, ask for

• Fluency How many ways.
• Flexibility -- What other.
• Originality What is the most unique .
• Elaboration What else.

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• Fluency How many ways can you catch a fish?
• Flexibility -- What other animals can you catch
  with a fishing rod?
• Originality What is the most unique method of
  using a fishing pole for survival?
• Elaboration What else would I need to know to
  survive in the wilderness with just a fishing
  pole?

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SCAMPER questions

• Substitute what if the wolf were an octopus?
• Combine What would a zeon (zebra and lion) look
  like? What would be its advantages and
  disadvantages in the wild?
• Adjust What if people were born with wheels
  instead of feet, what adjustments would we need
  to make?
• Modify, magnify or minify What if worms could
  grow to five feet long and a foot wide? What if
  flowers bloomed all year long and never wilted?

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I Crossed a Lion with a Mouse

• I crossed a lion with a mouse.
• Their progeny patrol the house,
• And often roar demanding cheese
• I give them all the cheese they please.

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• Put to other uses How could you use only
  kitchen utensils to create a garden?
• Eliminate - What if all people were born without
  legs, how would we get around?
• Reverse or Rearrange What if Fourth of July
  happened during the winter?

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Instead of the traditional 5 Ws and an H

• Ask questions about
• possibility What can
• Probability Which would
• Prediction Why will
• Imagination How might
• What are some good examples of these kinds of
  questions???

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Out of the Question by Sally Godinho and Jeni
Wilson suggests 3 Cs and 3 Ps

• Critique What are the strengths and weaknesses
  of this approach?
• Compare What are the similarities between
  ________ and _________?
• Connect What relationships do you see?

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• Ponder Whats another way of thinking about
  this?
• Personalize Have you changed your ideas? If so
  how and why?
• Prioritize Whats the most important idea?
  Which portion of this should be addressed first?

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GATE Thinking Tool icons as prompts for questions
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Details

• Parts
• Attributes
• Factors
• Variables

Example Identify and label the parts of the
story. Where did the story take place?
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What details do you remember from the story of
The Three Little Pigs?

• House of straw, sticks, and finally brick
• The wolf was threatening

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Language of the Discipline

• Specialized vocabulary
• Skills, tools or tasks used by people working
  within a field (discipline)

What specialized terms do we use to describe a
story?
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When you think of the story, The Three Little
Pigs, what specialized vocabulary do we use?

• What specialized words do we use to talk about
  narratives?
• Character
• Plot
• Setting
• Problem
• Conflict
• Solution
• resolution

• What specialized words did the author use to set
  this story apart?
• Ill huff and Ill puff and blow your house down
• Not by the hair of my chinny, chin, chin

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Patterns
Example Describe the repeating elements of
this story.

• Repeats
• Predictable

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Fairy Tales often have patterns of 3s. What
elements can you see in this story that come in
3s?What other patterns do you see?
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Point of View
Example Whos point of view is being
expressed? Whose is not being expressed?

• Multiple perspectives
• Opposing viewpoints

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What if this story was told from a different
point of view?The POV of the WOLFThe POV of
the FIRST LITTLE PIGThe POV of the HOUSE OF
BRICKS
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Ethics
Example What should happen to the wolf as a
result of his behavior?

• Points of view
• Different opinions
• Judge with criteria

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Questions to consider.

• Is lying or stealing ever justified?
• Does bad behavior on one persons part justify
  bad behavior back?
• Is judgment about wrong behavior effected by the
  status of the victim? Should it be?
• Does ones motive make a difference, or should
  one only consider the results of the behavior
  when making judgments?

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Change Over Time
Example Whats likely to happen in the
future? How would this be different if it took
place in the past?

• Changes between past, present and future
• Change within a specific time period

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Unanswered Questions
Example Use FAT questions. Consider red, green,
or yellow light questions

• Discrepancies
• Missing parts
• Unclear ideas
• Incomplete ideas

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Questioning using the stop light model

• On the line right there questions. Questions
  whose answers can be directly underlined in the
  text.
• Between the lines questions that require some
  inference, but still use the information in the
  text. Also called author and me questions
• Beyond the line questions prompted by the text
  but that take the questioner into their own or
  imaginary experiences.

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Consider questions that.

• Ask what if.
• What is the pigs had been the evil characters and
  the wolf was the good guy?
• Ask you to create an analogy
• What kind of dessert represents the best analogy
  for this story?
• Ask you to evaluate
• Who was smarter, the first little pig or the
  wolf?
• Ask that you combine elements.
• What if the wolf from this story met the wolf
  from Little Red Riding Hood, what would they say
  to each other?

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When to ask questions

• While riding in the car
• While taking a walk
• Around the dinner table
• While waiting

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Some of My Favorites

• If ____________ is the answer, what is the
  question?
• Would you rather be a ___________ or a
  ________________?
• What would a _________ think of__________?

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More favorite questions

• What would you fill in here
• _________________ is bad ____________
• Is worse.
• What are the ten most important words to a
  ____________________?
• What comes after a _______________?

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The question is more important than the answer

• A radical idea?
• Is it true?

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Neil Postman 1979Teaching as a Subversive
Activity

• Let us make the study of the art of questioning
  asking one of the central disciplines in language
  education.

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Eric Booth 1999The Everyday Work of Art

• The value of questions is grossly overlooked in
  the high demand, quick-fix nature of our lives
  and our nation. We are answer oriented
  everywhere, through schooling that is almost
  entirely right answer driven.

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Postman again

• All our knowledge results from questions, which
  is another way of saying question-asking is our
  most important intellectual tool.
• SO

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Who asks most of the questions in a classroom?

• According to J. T. Dillon, teachers ask how many
  questions per hour?
• 80
• As compared to how many asked by students?
• 2

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Developing your childs questioning skills

• Begin an activity by formulating questions.
• What questions do you have about our new garden?
• Create spaces for questions while doing
  activities
• What questions does this activity or task raise?
• Model questioning and an uncertainty that allows
  for authentic questions.
• I wonder if the acidity of the soil will make a
  difference?
• Keep track of questions on sticky notes or in a
  notebook.
• Be prepared to return to questions. Good
  questions beget more questions
• Celebrate really good questions without expecting
  to find an answer.
• Are humans the only species who appreciate a
  garden for its beauty and not its utility?

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Important Dos for questioning

• Give feedback on the question itself.
• Thats a really interesting question.
• Take a good question and make it better.
• Allow TIME!

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Some Donts

• Ask a string of questions
• Ask rhetorical questions
• Use questioning as a behavioral management tool
• Do you know what will happen if you ___?
• Expect an answer to every question
• Give feedback on every answer

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What questions do you have?