Newsletter #14: Now I'm Questioning Everything. Are You?

The Illusion of the "Right" Answer

I’m guilty too: I’m guilty of that thing where you get the one quick answer you’re looking for and simply move on to the next question. I’ll call on a student to answer a simple “yes/no” question, and if they answer correctly, I advance to the next point. Occasionally, someone will answer incorrectly, and I’ll choose another student, pose the same question and listen for the correct answer.

It’s not like I’m trying to kill the conversation, I just have more to do. The problem is, in killing the conversation, I’ve killed the curiosity, the thinking, and maybe even the cat too!

It’s been estimated that teacher’s questions consume between 10%-20% of students’ time in classrooms and that teachers ask up to 120 questions per hour, but 80%-90% of teacher questions only require students to recall facts (Carlsen; Vogler; Christoph & Nystrand, 2001).

Empowering Learning Through Critical Thinking & Self-Reflection

A lot of what is being asked in schools is testing student’s memory; reviewing content instead of engaging students with new ideas or reflecting on connections between curricular topics. “Authentic questions, though exceedingly rare in most classrooms, have a positive influence on student engagement, critical thinking, and achievement… [authentic questions] help promote class inquiry and discovery, framing learning as a complex, multifaceted, communal activity as opposed to a process of simply accumulating information.” (Ritchhart, Church & Morrison, Making Thinking Visible).

If the point of education is to empower learning through critical thinking and self-reflection, I need to engage my students with thoughtful questions, instead of looking for rote answers! 

Ask Authentic Questions: Strategies for Effective Wonder

Project Zero has created strategies to help me ask better questions. Project Zero, a Harvard Graduate School of Education initiative, sees questions as “drivers of inquiry, catalysts for changing perceptions, vehicles for developing understanding, promoters of action, and an opportunity to clarify our thinking” (Ritchhart, Church & Morrison, Making Thinking Visible).

Authentic questions allow us to openly wonder and observe the wondering in others. Open-ended questions, as opposed to closed (single answer) questions, are better at pushing past generalizations and rote memorization, and building understanding. In our interactions with students, we invite students to think when we offer up such questions as:

• What makes you say that?
• I’m interested in your thoughts on that. Can you tell me more?
• Why is this difficult to think about?
• Is there another way to think about this?
• What does this remind you of?
• What is something you know about this?
• Is there a wrong answer here?

If we are asking 120 questions an hour, some of them should require more than a simple yes or no answer. Take a few minutes to ask a second question, or even a third. In this way, you are building a classroom that promotes thinking and wonder.