Seminar on Best Practices in the Question Formulation Technique (QFT)

1. Seminar on Best Practices in the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) Andrew Minigan Director of Strategy Sarah Westbrook Director of Professional Learning The Right Question Institute, Cambridge, MA Katy Connolly Education Program Associate

2. Acknowledgments We are deeply grateful to The Hummingbird Fund, the Library of Congress, and to the Right Question Institute board of directors for their support of our work. Thank you also to Luis Carillo, Maria Guzman, and Barbara Lanefor making today possible.

3. Who is in the room?

4. Welcome We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place For the first time. -T.S. Eliot

5. Today’s Agenda • Why Spend Time on Teaching Question Formulation? • Collaborative Learning with the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) • Explore Classroom Applications & Student Work -- Break -- • Beginning to Plan a Lesson with the QFT -- Lunch -- • The QFT& IDM with Luis Carillo and Barbara Lane • Self- Selected Working Groups • Questions, Reflections, and Closing Words

6. To Access Today’s Materials: https://rightquestion.org/events/ Join our Online Community for: • Templates you can use tomorrow in class • Classroom Examples • Instructional Videos • Forums and Discussions with other Educators

7. We’re Tweeting… @RightQuestion @SarahRQI @AndrewRQI #QFT

8. Why spend time teaching the skill of question formulation?

9. Honoring the Original Source: Parents in Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1990 “We don’t go to the school because we don’t even know what to ask.”

10. "There is no learning without having to pose a question." - Richard Feynman Nobel Laureate, Physics, 1965

11. “The study of biology is about asking good questions about life and figuring out clever ways to find the answers.” - Amy Gladfelter Associate Professor, University of North Carolina

12. “There can be no thinking without questioning—no purposeful study of the past, nor any serious planning for the future.” - David Hackett Fischer University Professor of Emeritus of History, Brandeis University

13. – Stuart Firestein Former chair, Department of Biology, Columbia University “We must teach students how to think in questions, how to manage ignorance.”

14. College Presidents onWhat College Students Should Learn “The primary skills should be analytical skills of interpretation and inquiry. In other words, know how to frame a question.” - Leon Botstein, President of Bard College “…the best we can do for students is have them ask the right questions.” - Nancy Cantor, Former Chancellor of University of Illinois The New York Times, August 4, 2002

15. Yet, only 27% of graduates believe college taught them how to ask their own questions Alison Head, Project Information Literacy at University of Washington, 2016

16. But, the problem begins long before college…

17. Age Four: “The true age of inquisitiveness” • James Sully dubbed age four, “the true age of inquisitiveness when question after question is fired off with wondrous rapidity and pertinacity.” • Young children ask 10,000 questions per year before they begin formal schooling. Sully, 1896 Harris, 2012

18. Question Formulation by Adolescence Dillon, 1988, p. 199

19. Educators Recognize the Problem • Teachers report that getting students to ask questions feels like, “pulling teeth.” • Students ask less than 1/5th the questions educators estimated would be elicited and deemed desirable. Susskind, 1979

20. First Year Students’ Engagement • Students engage in behaviors consistent with their high school behaviors. • Students who reported frequently asking questions in high school also reported doing the same in their first year of college. • Students who tended to not ask questions in high school tended to not do so during their first year at college. National Survey of Student Engagement, 2008

21. How can teaching students to ask questions go from a feeling of “pulling teeth” to a feeling of excitement for both teachers and learners?

22. Moving from the exception… In a 1912 study Romiett Stevens observed: “an unusual lesson because twenty-five of the thirty-four questions were asked by the pupils… The result was that the lesson developed an impetus born of real interest. I mention it because this lesson was unique in the series of one hundred.” The question as a measure of efficiency in instruction: A critical study of classroom practice. Columbia University Contributions to Education, No. 48

23. …to the norm

24. Now, Educators Lead the Work The Right Question Institute offers materials through a Creative Commons License. Youare welcome to use, adapt, and share our materials for noncommercial use, as long as you include the following reference: “Source: The Right Question Institute (RQI). The Question Formulation Technique (QFT) was created by RQI. Visit rightquestion.org for more information and free resources.”

25. What happens when students do learn to ask their own questions?

26. Question Formulation & Metacognitive Learning Self-questioning (metacognitive strategy): • Student formulation of their own questions is one of the most effective metacognitive strategies • Engaging in pre-lesson self-questioning improved students rate of learning by nearly 50% (Hattie, p.193) John Hattie Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement, 2008

27. Student Reflection “The way it made me feel was smart because I was asking good questions and giving good answers.” -Boston 9th grade summer school student

28. Student Reflection Why do you think we ask questions? “So we can be curious about what we are learning and want to know more” -1st grader, Novi, MI

29. Student Reflection “Asking questions may not always lead to answers, but it leads to curiosity… Question asking helps us guide our own adventure and helps us find new interests. Everything starts with a question, even if you don't realize it.” -9th grader, Fitchburg, MA

30. Collaborative Learning with the Question Formulation Technique (QFT)

31. The Question Formulation Technique (QFT) Students learn to: • Produce their own questions • Improve their questions • Strategize on how to use their questions • Reflect on what they have learned and how they learned it

32. Rules for Producing Questions 1. Ask as many questions as you can 2. Do not stop to answer, judge, or discuss 3. Write down every question exactly as stated 4. Change any statements into questions

33. Producing Questions • Ask Questions • Follow the Rules • Ask as many questions as you can. • Do not stop to answer, judge, or discuss. • Write down every question exactly as it was stated. • Change any statements into questions. • Number the Questions

34. Question Focus Some students are not asking questions. Please write this statement at the top of your paper. Remember: Number the questions. Follow the rules.

35. Categorizing Questions: Closed/ Open Definitions: • Closed-ended questions can be answered with a “yes” or “no” or with a one-word answer. • Open-ended questions require more explanation. Directions: Identify your questions as closed-ended or open-ended by marking them with a “C” or an “O.”

36. Discussion

37. Discussion

38. Improving Questions • Take one closed-ended questionand change itinto an open-ended question. • Take one open-ended question and change itinto a closed-ended question. Open Closed Open Closed

39. Strategize: Prioritizing Questions Review your list of questions • Choose the three questions you consider most important. • While prioritizing, think about your Question Focus: Some students are not asking questions. After prioritizing consider… • Why did you choose those three questions? • Where are your priority questions in the sequence of your entire list of questions?

40. Strategize: Action Plan From priority questions to action plan… In order to answer your priority questions: • What do you need to know? Information • What do you need to do? Tasks

41. Strategize: Action Plan • In order to answer your priority questions: • What do you need to know? Information • What do you need to do? Tasks

42. Share • Questions you changed from open/closed • Your three priority questions and their numbers in your original sequence • Rationale for choosing priority questions • Next steps from your action plan

43. Reflection • What did you learn? • How did you learn it? • What do you understand differently now about some students are not asking questions?

44. A Look Inside the Process

45. The QFT, on one slide… Ask as many questions as you can Do not stop to discuss, judge or answer Record exactly as stated Change statements into questions • Question Focus • Produce Your Questions • Follow the rules • Number your questions • Improve Your Questions • Categorize questions as Closed or Open-ended • Change questions from one type to another • Prioritize Your Questions • Share & Discuss Next Steps • Reflect Closed-Ended: Answered with “yes,” “no” or one word Open-Ended: Require longer explanation

46. Three thinking abilities with one process

47. Thinking in many different directions Divergent Thinking

48. Narrowing Down, Focusing Convergent Thinking

49. Thinking about Thinking Metacognitive Thinking

50. Exploring Classroom Examples