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Law #7: Use Powerful Questions
 For most teachers,
the question is a tool to ensure that students are learning.
The teacher may read
out to the class, or students may read
out loud (sometimes using the "You Read" method), and
just
to check she asks a comprehension question:
Student: ...and when a plant
makes its own food it
is called photosynthesis.
Teacher: What is it called when a plant makes its
own food?
Class: Photosynthesis.
Teacher: Yes.
She then tries a variation
on the question, just to see if the students really understood.
Teacher: Photosynthesis is
when a plant makes its own...
Class: Food.
Teacher: Good.
While it might appear as
though learning is going on, what you have here is little
more than a "cat-and-mouse game" that students have mastered.
They can give these answers correctly with not just their
eyes closed, but also with their brains closed. If you did
this routine enough times, students could give the correct
answer even if the content were in a foreign language they
did not understand.
Howard Bloom mentions that
there are 6 question types that cover a range of cognitive
skills:
- Knowledge Questions: These demonstrate
being able to identify something. E.g., Q: What is photosynthesis.
Q: Who was the first person on the moon? These are the
lowest level questions because there is only a mere association
involved, and it doesn't require much cognitive skill.
- Comprehension Questions: These demonstrate
the individual understands something. E.g., Can you explain
how plants make their own food? In your own words describe
how a law is enacted.
- Application Questions: These demonstrate
a learners ability to apply knowledge in novel contexts.
Q: Now that you've learned this grammatical feature, can
you create a sentence of your own using the same construction?
- Analysis Questions: These get individuals
to break things down into their parts. E.g., Why do you
think Indian economy has be growing so much over the last
few years? What are the skills Akhbar exhibited that made
him an effective leader?
- Synthesis Questions: These get learners
to create something new or see things from a different
perspective. E.g., Q: What would happen if there were
no gravity? How would you have reacted if you were Hamlet?
Take an existing health technology and make a modification
to it so it could benefit people in rural areas.
- Evaluation/Judgement Questions: These
demonstrate an individuals ability to form an opinion
about a particular concept. E.g., Do you think the rich/poor
divide will close or widen in the next 10 years? Do you
agree with the statement "Money is the root of all evil?"
If you really want to turn your students' thinking on,
see what happens when you move your questions up the ladder.
Questions that are higher up and use more complex cognitive
skills are called Higher Order Thinking Skills (or H.O.T.S.).
Unfortunately most teachers only hit rung one or two--they
mostly ask "Knowledge" or "Comprehension Questions". And
practically speaking, to answer these questions, students
do not need to do much thinking at all. So even though they
are in class, and a teacher is there, books are open, and
lips are moving, not much thinking or learning is happening.
Questions are tools that can sharpen students thinking
skills. Let's remember that in school, or goal is not just
to impart information, its also to get students to improve
their thinking!
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