Questioning

Josh Reid, Ph.D.

“The flaw in most Socratic,

Critical, and problem-based

approaches is that the

teacher retains control of the

inquiry.”

-Matthew H. Bowker,

“Teaching Students to Ask

Questions Instead of

Answering Them.”

QUESTIONING:

Students ask questions that facilitate the solution of

problems and the pursuit of opportunities.

64% of programs saw improvement in their assessments of the questioning

outcome in the first year of INtopFORM

INtopFORM Summer Workshop 2015

Assessment and Implementation Planning Worksheet

Part I: Write each INtopFORM Learning Outcome Using Language

Appropriate for your discipline

My version from 2013:

Students will develop a questioning

habit of mind to analyze the texts in the

class and their own writing.

INtopFORM Previous Summers

BSC: Students learn how to generate scientific hypotheses about

biological phenomenon.

SW: Students will engage in inquiring questions to examine different

theories.

Nursing: Students ask questions facilitating caring for patients and their

families, helping them heal and enhancing their lives.

Sports Management: Formulate questions that will facilitate the

exploring of a client’s needs.

“Children enter school as question marks and come out

as periods.”

-Neil Postman & Charles Weingartner, Teaching as a

Subversive Activity

Part 2: Mark the items that best describe how you hope your majors will excel with respect to each

INtopFORM learning outcome. Check all that apply. Then, write your own items that are especially

relevant to your majors’ ability to demonstrate information fluency skills.

QUESTIONING: Students ask questions that facilitate the solution of problems and

the pursuit of opportunities.☐ Questions define the scope of the area of interest.☐ Questions identify key issues to be resolved.☐ Questions demonstrate understanding of the problem, task or topic.☐ Questions encourage a broad search for information.☐ Questions are relevant to the problem, task or topic.☐ Questions bring needed focus or structure to the problem, task or topic.☐ Questions examine diverse perspectives on the problem, task or topic. ☐ Questions reflect attitudes of openness and curiosity.

Additional items that are especially relevant to your majors’ ability to ask good questions:1.

2.

In order for students to develop a

questioning habit of mind to analyze the

texts in the class and their own writing,

question-making must become a core

component of course content.

Students should feel like their questions

matter.

AMNIOCENTESISWhat is amniocentesis?

What is it used for?

Where did it originate?

How was it developed?

Does it help?

Who discovered it?

How does it work?

Does it hurt?

Is it harmful?

Does it cost a lot?

Should it be used?

When is it needed?

Is it practical?

Is it accurate?

Is it safe?

Do all women need it?

What does it show?

What negative effects are associated with it?

Why was it developed?

What improvements have been made?

Some Questions are More Insightful Than

OthersOpen-ended

How/Why

Process/Multiple

Answers/Detailed answers

Closed

What/When/Who/Where

Fact-based/Yes or No/True

or False

Who are the main

characters?

What happens in

the beginning of

the story?

What is the

second section of

a lab report?

Why do the

characters act the

way that they do?

Why does the story

start that way?

What effect does it

have?

Why does the

methods section

occur where it does?

How does it serve

the audience?

AMNIOCENTESISWhat is amniocentesis?

What is it used for?

Where did it originate?

How was it developed?

Does it help?

Who discovered it?

How does it work?

Does it hurt?

Is it harmful?

Does it cost a lot?

Should it be used?

When is it needed?

Is it practical?

Is it accurate?

Is it safe?

Do all women need it?

What does it show?

What negative effects are associated with it?

Why was it developed?

What improvements have been made?

How/Why Questions

Try constructing a few

questions (how/why) using

some elements of art: line,

shape, color, texture,

composition/placement

Development

Zombie movies are really scary.

Development

Zombie movies terrify the viewer by putting them in the

dangerous situations that the characters experience.

Development

Zombie movies terrify the viewer by putting them in the

dangerous situations that the characters experience.

For example, in Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later (2001), we

feel right there.

Development

Zombie movies terrify the viewer by putting them in the

dangerous situations that the characters experience.

For example, in Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later (2001), we

follow Cillian Murphy’s character through a deserted

London. He has slept through the Zombie apocalypse,

so he is as disoriented as we are—his discoveries are

our discoveries. To accentuate our connection with

Murphy’s character, when the first dramatic chase scene

occurs, Boyle utilizes a hand-held camera to portray

Murphy’s viewpoint, so that we also feel the tension and

mounting panic.

Activity: Get students to develop a taxonomy of discipline-specific

questions that fit on Bloom’s Taxonomy, or that represent lower- to

higher-order thinking.

Questions: Content-SpecificSeeking Meaning

• How does the artist use

the elements of art

(line/shape/color/texture)

to express

effect/meaning?

• What literary terms is the

author using in this

stanza? Why is he or she

using them? To what

effect?

Important

themes/movements/problems

posed as questions

• Impressionism: How can

an artist depict human

experience in the age of

the photograph and its

relentless realism?

• Milton: How can I

reconcile classical Epic

with the Bible?

• Research Article: What is

the research question?See “Questioning with Dr. Dilshod Achilov” for more content-specific activites

Questions: Question Templates

To what extend does __X__ help explain or predict _Y_?

Under what conditions does __Y___ occur?

Does the procedure/method of _X_ have any effect on __Y__?

In what ways (how) does __X__ affect ____Y__?

How has __X___ changed over the last (number) of years, and why?

•*From “Questioning with Dr. Dilshod Achilov”

Question Template Variation Activity

Craft questions about the poem drawing from the following list of

literary elements: epithet, alliteration, assonance, enjambment,

allusion, anaphora, metaphor/simile, oxymoron, onomatopoeia.

Questions: AudienceWhat questions about human

cloning might a

•Prospective parent

•Person with diabetes

•Legislator

•Member of the clergy

•Attorney specializing in

children’s rights

Ask?

*From “Whose Questions?”

Teaching Critical Thinking, Dr.

William G. Kirkwood

For Scream activity, what

questions might a

•Contemporary viewer

•Art conservationist

•Investor

•Audience living in Munch’s

day

•Historian

•Painter

Ask?

Online Discussions—Question Generation

• Come up with TWO discussion questions based on the Aeneid.

• These questions should be well reasoned and composed, be based

on something from the text, and serve as a catalyst for critical

thinking that will lead to more in-depth investigation or elaboration

than what the text offers. Please do not ask simple questions that

ask someone to go on a treasure hunt through the text for the

“right” answer. You can use the questions I have been asking in the

past lectures for examples:

• Example of a superficial/not-so-good discussion question: “Name

someone Aeneas sees killed in Book 2?” [Requires no thought—

the student just searches through the text to regurgitate the “facts”

found therein. Once it is answered, the information is immediately

lost to the student.]

Online Discussions—Question Generation

• Example of a better discussion question: “How does Virgil

characterize the love between Aeneas and Dido? How is their

relationship similar or different from today’s tragic love stories?

Choose a contemporary example (Movie/TV Show) to enhance

your comparison” [Requires student to some thinking on his or her

own about the answer. Because the student has to make the

answer his or her own, the material makes a deeper impact. The

answer requires critical thinking and original application of the given

material--the answers will not be found in the text alone. Instead of

being the end point of discussion, the text serves as a launching

pad for further thought/analysis.]

• Why are you creating discussion questions? This skill will help you

when you start on your first essay. All good essays start with a

question you want to answer about a text. Getting practice coming

up with those questions will benefit you for this first essay and in

the future.

Questions: Grading Criteria

Content/Organization

•Do you have four fully developed sections of the proposal that fulfill the requirements of the assignment?

•Does the proposal demonstrate clear strategies of persuasion?

•Are your transitions effective between sections and paragraphs and sentences?

•Do you utilize topic sentences?

•Do you stay focused?

•Does your conclusion answer the question, “so what?”

•Do you have a clear thesis statement in your introduction on why this project is important enough to deserve funding?

•Is your research question clearly articulated in your introduction? •Do you use at least four scholarly secondary sources?

•Do you analyze closely at least one primary source and discuss how that research contributes to your hypothesis?

Style/Mechanics

•Is your style appropriate for your audience? Is it formal without being stilted, accessible without being chatty?

•Are your sentences varied in length, structure, and word choices?

•Do you write with active verbs?

•Are your ideas clearly expressed?

Mechanics/Conventions

•Is your paper spell-checked?

•Is your paper free from reoccurring grammatical errors?

•Do you cite your sources correctly (both in-text and on a works cited page)?

•Are your sources properly summarized and are quotes from those sources properly integrated?

•Do you follow the “formal requirements” for page length, title, header, etc.?

Questions: Researching/Writing/Peer Review

•See Kirkwood’s “Pre-Research Questions”

•What is my argument? Where is my thesis statement?

•How does this introduction engage the reader?

•Who is my audience?

•How does this paragraph support the argument?

•How can I connect this paragraph with the previous one?

•What is the focus of this paragraph?

•How so?

•Do I have an example?

•Can I come up with an analogy here?

Questions: INtopFormTastic!

• SEEKING: Where can I find information/sources to

answer this question? How can I test this question?

• EVALUATE: Is this source scholarly or popular? Does

this source pass the CRAAP test?

• USING: Where can I place this source in my paper?

Which quotes/what data will help support my point

here?

• RECOGNIZING: Am I citing this source correctly in

MLA/APA/Chicago style?

Questions: Study Skills/Metacognition

• Brainstorming for lecture: What questions about today’s

reading/topic do I hope will be covered for class today?

• Brainstorming topics: What text(s) am I most interested in writing

about?

• Exam Questions: Based on the material covered for today, what is

a likely test question for the exam?

• Growth Mindset: How can I use my instructor’s feedback to

improve for next time? How can I use this grade/error/mistake to

grow?

• Text Annotation: Why does the writer open the essay this way?

What is his/her evidence for this assertion? Why is this sentence

so effective?

• How do I study? What is my writing process?

• Why am I studying this? Why is it important? Why is it important to

me?

“Knowledge is produced in response to questions. And

new knowledge results from the asking of new

questions; quite often new questions about old

questions. Here is the point: Once you have learned

how to ask questions—relevant and appropriate and

substantial questions—you have learned how to learn

and no one can keep you from learning whatever you

want or need to know.”

-Neil Postman & Charles Weingartner, Teaching as a

Subversive Activity

Pawel Kuczynski, Control

Toil

Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

Pawel Kuczynski

“The most basic requirement for a successful question-centered pedagogy is the

rediscovery of enjoyment, meaning, and value in questions.” –Matthew H. Bowker

Part 3: Describe a teaching idea your heard or thought about today that you want to

use to teach your students each of the INtopFORM learning outcomes. Describe

when and where you plan to try out this idea.

QUESTIONING: Students ask questions that facilitate the solution of

problems and the pursuit of opportunities.

Idea: When & Where