Questions are a key in unlocking information. When meeting someone new we often ask things like their name, where they live, what they do etc. These questions help us to learn things we didn’t know before. As an adult, I’ve learned different kinds of questions and how to propose a question, but we are not born just able to ask questions. Just as any other language skill, questions require practice. So how can we develop this skill in children?
At the Right Question Institute, they’ve been studying and sharing how to do just that: develop the skill of asking questions. Through their Question Formulation Technique (QFT), they walk educators through developing questioning with students. To get started, they place an emphasis on the Question Focus (QFocus):
A stimulus; a springboard you will use to ask questions. The QFocus can be a topic, image, phrase or situation that will serve as the “focus” for generating questions. An effective QFocus should be clear, should provoke and stimulate new lines of thinking and should not be a question.
(The Right Question Institute).
This QFocus lends itself well to project work. In Phase I of the Project Approach, educators narrow down a topic of student interest. One sign of a good topic is that students have a lot of questions about the topic and want to learn more. Sometimes it can be hard to provoke questions in younger students, so until question skills are developed; teachers need to use many observations to find a topic. To help students phrase their thoughts into questions and enhance their question skills, the QFT recommends creating a time for questions with the following rules:
· Ask as many questions as you can
· Do not stop to discuss, judge, or answer any questions
· Write down every question exactly as it is stated
· Change any statement into a question
With our youngest learners, some of the rules may also need to be modeled by a teacher first. For example, a teacher asking a lot of questions around a topic during circle time, or a teacher modeling how to change a statement into a question. So the statement “I like to go to the store with my mom” can evolve into “Do other students like to go to the store with their families? What do they do at the store? Is it the same as me?” During the question production phase, the QRT puts and emphasis on disregarding the quality of the question. From open to close, simple to complex, all are welcome!
After the list has been generated, it is time for improving and prioritizing. Questions can be improved by categorizing them and trying to form them in new ways. Improving questions can help clarify what information you want to gain. Since many questions can be asked during the production phase, prioritizing helps narrow down the focus of questions. This can be especially helpful during phase II of the Project Approach when developing investigations or preparing for an expert visit.
Written by Amelia Troutman