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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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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?
4. 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?
5. 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.
6. 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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