Time well-spent asking questions

There really are dumb questions. Teachers used to tell their students that there are no dumb questions with the intention of encouraging their learners to ask about what was unclear to them. Dumb questions are out there, though--they are questions to which the asker already knows the answer—and more than 80% of classroom questions are questions to which the teacher/asker knows the answer. Teachers ask factual questions to which they—and many of their students—already know the answers.

Fewer teachers are now asking those dumb questions. Today’s excellent teachers ask questions that can be described with a different “D” word—deep. Deep questions are about what may be unclear to even the teacher, that take critical thinking to answer, and are worth the time it takes to delve into the answers. To increase the Return on Investment, teachers are now getting into the habit of asking questions to which they do not know the answer. The ROI will be deeper critical thinking and more robust classroom discussion.

 In the last two posts, I provided information from the Aptos California High School website, http://www.aptoshs.net/cliq9. We have discussed high expectations and building trust. Today let’s turn our attention to asking questions with high ROI. These questioning strategies take no more time than asking questions that have factual answers but reap far deeper results—not just for low expectancy students, but for ALL students:

The teacher asks questions of ALL students with the same frequency and depth. Teachers could even keep an official record of the students asked each class period.

Teacher makes sure ALL students’ questions are answered at the same rate and with the same depth.

Teacher makes sure ALL students are asked challenging questions. A technique I use when a student is reluctant to respond, is to encourage by asking, “If you had to guess, what would you say?”

Students notice the expectations:

When asked, students say the teacher expects everyone to participate.

When asked, students say the teacher asks difficult questions of every student.

Asking deeper questions takes no more time that asking the other “D” questions. Develop some questions that can apply to almost any content. Some of my own go-to critical thinking questions include

·         How would you compare …? contrast …?

·         How would you explain…

·         Based on what you know, how would you explain …?

·         What would be your own original way to …?

What deeper questions have you developed for your classroom that increase ROI?

Next post we will discuss ROI strategies for learners. If you have a favorite strategy for learning, please share it here.