Art+of+Asking+Good+Questions

On this page, we will work to develop and share resources and ideas around the art of asking good questions.

Wragg, et.al. completed a study of over 1,000 teacher questions they had recorded. Here is what they found.
 * over 50% of the questions were about managerial issues in the classroom. For example, "who has completed the homework today?"
 * over 30% of the questions required only recall of previously provided information. These types of questions require low-level thinking on Bloom's taxonomy.
 * less than 10% of questions required students to analyze, make inferences or to generalize from previously learned information.

They concluded that less than 10% of questions asked by teachers actually caused any new learning. So reflect on your classroom and how you ask questions of your students. Does the light bulb shine in the mind of your students as they engage in learning? [|Questioning], Brown and Wragg, 1993.

In his book, //Embedded Formative Assessment (2011)//, Dylan Wiliam writes, "If I had to reduce all of the research on feedback into one simple overarching idea, at least for academic subjects in school, it would be this: feedback should cause thinking ." (p. 127) Formative assessment should create opportunities for students to see where they are on the journey and get them to take control of their learning. This would result in them thinking about their learning.






 * ARTICLES **

Harvard Education Letter Article on teaching students to ask good questions

Organizing a Socratic Seminar

Asking questions, a habit of inquiry

Bloom's Taxonomy, Question Stems


 * WEBSITES **

[|Teacher Effective Program], How I learned to ask good questions? [|ASCD, Asking Good Questions], Summer 2008 article [|Asking Better Questions with Bloom's Taxonomy], About.com [|Bloom's Taxonomy, Model Questions and Key Words], website [|TeacherVision, Levels of Questions in Bloom's Taxonomy] [|Revised Bloom's Taxonomy] [|Mathematics TEKS ToolKit], Charles A Dana Center, University of Texas, asking good questions in mathematics, 5 categories of questions to ask


 * BLOGS **

[|Learn to Ask Better Questions], Harvard Business Review [|The Art of Asking Questions], Harvard Business Review [|The Art of Asking Good Questions], Center for Teaching blog entry [|The Importance of Asking Questions], Connected Principals


 * VIDEOS **

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 * CFT INSTITUTE ACTIVITY **



This is the activity for Day 2 on Asking Good Questions

Article to be read as part of the Day 2 activity on Asking Good Questions

Planning document to use as a reference in Day 2 activity about Asking Good Questions


 * OTHER RESOURCES **



** TABLE 1 **

 * ~ TYPE OF QUESTION ||~ EXAMPLE OF THE ||~ Qualities of Question ||
 * ~ Literal ||< How many teaspoons are in a tablespoon? || Close-ended questions ||
 * ~ Inferential ||< What would happen to plants if there weren't honeybees? || Open-ended questions ||
 * ~ Meta-cognitive ||< Using questions to help a student reflect on their own thinking. || Open-ended questions ||

Table 1 comes from Effective Questioning Strategies (p. 16)