The Why’s and How’s of What We Ask
by M. Kingsley, C. McCloud and L. McGee
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Do we think about why we ask questions?
Do we have a purpose in mind when we ask a
question?
Did we think about creating types of
questions to achieve our desired t outcomes?
Do we use taxonomies?
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Taxonomy is the practice and science of
classification. Taxonomy uses taxonomic
units, known as taxa (singular taxon).
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What is it?
How does it work?
How can we use it?
Must we use the levels in a certain order?
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Bloom said that there is a form to how we ask
questions that has educational impact.
The theory proposes that we should be
planning questions for our lessons that will
help us maximize our students’ learning.
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We learned about other kinds of questioning
techniques that we can use in lessons.
One shows how questions can be changed to
focus on different learning outcomes. This is
the Convergent-Divergent theory.
Another, given to us by LCI, (Learner
Centered Initiatives) is not hierarchal but
based on desired instructional outcome.
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Analysis and integration
of given or remembered
information.
Focus on a correct
response.
Can be factual and
simple or factual and
complex.
Often at lower levels of
Bloom’s Taxonomy; they
tap processes of
explaining, stating
relationships and
compare/contrast.
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More demanding of a
student’s thought
processes and may call
for several plausible or
correct responses.
Often ask for opinions or
conjectures.
Tend to be at the upper
levels of Bloom’s
taxonomy and tap the
processes of predicting,
hypothesizing, inferring
or reconstructing.
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Convergent
What community do
you live in?
When do you use a
period in a
sentence?
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Divergent
Is a neighborhood
always a
community?
What happens when
we do not use
punctuation?
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This one forms questions based on the type
of thinking you want students to do.
For example, a text explicit question asks
students to either find or remember
something from a source. What colors are in
the picture?
An inference question asks learners to go
beyond the immediately available
information. It could be: How do the arts tell
us what was important to a society?
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There are some
ways to begin using
this in an easy
manner.
When writing lesson
plans, think about
writing down a few
questions from one
of the taxonomies
to try out.
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Try questions from
more than one
taxonomy.
Identify the desired
outcome of your
lesson and select
questions that will
fit and try them
out.
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We have knowledge
and comprehension
type questions.
We have evaluation
type questions.
It is important that
we not sacrifice one
for the other.
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It is important that
we check for
understanding of
information when
we expect students
to evaluate or
synthesize.
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Junior Great books helps develop student
questioning skills.
You can discuss questioning techniques with
children.
You can use test prep opportunities by
teaching analysis of types of questions, e.g.,
this a fact detail question that you can go to
the text for the answer.
Students can make test questions for
themselves.
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It is difficult to set goals if you don’t know
what is expected of you.
You can help students to identify personal
goals and needs using the questioning
techniques outlined in the two taxonomies.
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Using these taxonomies is not only about
teachers questioning students.
It can also help students develop higher order
thinking.
It can put kids in the driver’s seat when it
comes to questioning.
It can help them to frame questions like:
What do you want to do next? What did you
do well? What do you need to work on?
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If I could write part of this story over I would ______.
What would you like to learn more about in the next unit?
What are three things you can do to improve your work in
math?
What do you need to do next week to become a better reader?
Select work that shows a poor decision about something to
do with your project. How did that decision impact your
success with the project?
Select work that shows you have reached the goal you set.
How does that work show that you have reached your goal?
If you could go on working on this piece, what would you do?
After reviewing the checklist, I tried/will try to improve by
taking the following steps.
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Reading about the types of questioning we
already do can help us focus our questions to
better achieve the results we want.
Teaching students questioning techniques
can help in improving educational outcome,
assist students in goal setting and
incorporate students in rubric development.
Student driven rubrics and goals are more
often internalized and therefore more
meaningful.