Our Lady of the Sacred Heart School

Teacher WorkshopTuesday 29 January 2013

That’s a good question.

What’s your thinking ?

Good questioning is fostered by an ability to think in an environment of inquiry

The one really competitive skill is the skill of being able to learn. It is the skill of not being able to get the right answers to questions about what you were taught in school, but to make the right response to situations that are outside the scope of what you were taught in school. We need to produce people who know how to act…faced with situations for which they are unprepared.Seymour Papert )1998)

I think therefore I amRené Descartes 1644

For many • Thinking is difficult and students resist it like

the plague…evading the struggle of learning with,

• “I don’t know” • “why did you call on me?... I wasn’t doing

anything” “ • “who cares, what difference does it make” • “ Ask someone else

” In the end if thinking were easy there would be more of it” Dantonio and Beisenherz (2001)

Asking a robust QuestionStudent Teacher Environment

“ Questions are carriers of whatever new cognitive system is emerging “Taba et al (1964)

Highly Effective Questions (HEQ)• The way a question is asked

matters, it determines the amount of cognitive work available for our students to do.

• The more cognitive opportunity created, the better the quality of the question.

Question

PathA Path B

(optimal)

Answer HEQ

So what determines a good question?

• Scope and intentionality determine a good question

• Scope =depth breadth• A question’s scope is

determined by both the quantity of answers elicited ( Broad) and the mental activity needed to answer it.

Intentionality Deepens QuestionsQuestions need to be

• Filtered• Defined• Redefined• Then answered with

• Specificity• Completeness• Justification

Strategies for Developing Effective Questioning

• Highly Effective Question (H.E.Q)• Blooms• Three Story Intellect• Seven Steps of Questioning• KWHLAO• Questioning Understanding:

Empowering Student Thinking. (Qu:Est)

• Question Maps• Filter, Refine. Redefine (F.R.R)• Investigate, Consequential,

Enriching. (I.C.E)

Thinking before you Question

Because learning to organise our thinking helps us to ask specific, targeted questions and this makes all the difference to the answers we are given.

There is a place for creative questions, but it lives within the critical question.

Critical Thinking is not Creative Thinking

, • ,

However Creative Thinking may also be Critical Thinking.

l

,

Interview with Gareth Morgan

• You are asked by your editor to interview Gareth Morgan regarding his position on cats in society.

• Organise your team and Identify

• Gareth, reporters, notetakers, observers.

Good Questions have four components that activate Critical thinking…

1.A Mental ActOf thinking in response to a

trigger

2.Mentally IntensiveQuestions that reach a threshold

of intensity appropriate to the student.

3.Ameniable to Instructionskill s and acuity of content and

is increased

4.Generalised across the CurriculumAble to be applied and transfered

Question to develop understandingLearning theory says that we have to learn something to understand it; … this is totally contrary to evidence as we have to understand something in order to learn it; We have to make sense of it; we need to ask questionsSmith (1998)

Scaffolding Questions

• We need lots of practice asking questions so we can learn about dispositions and skills…this takes, teaching, opportunity and understanding.

We need tools to work smart• Teach specific strategies for

quality questioning: - Rich questions, - Fertile questions- Essential questions- Open questions- Closed questions - Fat & skinny questions

• Model Key Step Questions (Michael Pohl)

• Model the Question Cycle ( Michael Pohl)

Where to Now

• K. What do we know?• W. What do we want to

know?• H. How will we find out?• L. What are we learning?• A. How will we apply what

we know?• Q. What new questions do

we have?

• Where to now?

Provoking my Questioning

Levels of Questioning

• Knowledge/Remembering: Retelling, recalling or describing

• Comprehension/Understanding : Interpreting info

• Application:Applying knowledge in new situations

• Synthesis/Analysing: Drawing together info and data in different formats. Developing new understanding

• Evaluation: Reflecting on process and outcome. Judging or verifying

• Creating: Invent, Design,Create, Devise

1. Label, identify, find

2. Compare, connect, infer

3. Sequence, order, list, classify, pre-summarise (generalise)

4. Decode questions/instructions/directions

5. Encode, answer the question, solve the problem

6. Apply, predict, project

7. Conclude, Re-summarise

Seven Steps of Questioning

Seven Steps Question Examples G Hannel Highly Effective Questioning

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6 Step 7Label Identify, Find, Notice

Compare, Contrast, Infer

List, Sequence, Order, Classify, Integrate, Synthesize

Decode,Interpret1. Read/Listen2. Interpret3. Justify

Encode, AnswerValidate & Justify

Apply, PredictProject, Hypothesize

Relevancy

ResummariseConclude

What do you see as important on the page?

What is the relationship between these two things?

What are the steps to the problem?

What will need in order to complete this task?

What is your answer and why?

What if …….had never happened?

What did we learn?

Is there any key information we should know?

How are these the same or different?

How can we make these into sets or groups?

What other ways are there of interpreting this?

Why did you make that particular choice?

What would you have done?

How would you summarise what you have learned?

What are the main facts?

How do these connect and why?

What is the order of events that led to this situation?

What else can you tell me about the……

Why is that the right answer?

How can we use what we have learned?

What conclusion have you reached now?

Students Learning to Inquire by using relevant deep questioning skills.

Questioning to enhance students’ Learning Inquiry

Questioning to learn: A framework for Inquiry and problem based learning

What do we want to know? Student Generated Questions Michael Pohl

• Investigative - - Generating info about

now and then• Consequential

- Exploring Possible IMPACTS and OUTCOMES

• Enriching- Require a Critical,Creative, Caring Thinking response

How can we promote effective questioning• Model and display explicit forms of

questioning

• Ensure that questions clearly include the required skills and focus

• Plan questions according to the cognitive level that is required

• Keep an on going record of thinking and learning in the classroom provides rich reference points for facilitating the questions for inquiry?

• Use QRQ to facilitate deeper level inquiry?

Question Maps• Identify focus of problem to solve

or inquiry

• Identify key facts

• Apply a selection of WHO? WHAT? WHEN? WHERE? HOW? WHY? to identify related questions for inquiry

• Check for relevance

• Make decisions about inquiry path and select appropriate questions

Questioning Stems• Provide key words or patterns for

questioning at each stage or type of questioning e.g. using blooms

• Have prompts on cards, charts, class books

• Model and display these in a range of situations to facilitate the process

• Identify the level of thinking and or the stage of inquiry this will relate to.

Provide Quality Question Prompts to support students

From ‘Problem Based Learning’ by John Burell

!. What do you wonder about now?

2. Does this suggest any new approaches, ideas that you think are worth investigating

3. What kinds of connections and relationships are becoming evident to you now?

4. Where should we go from here?

“It’s just all wonderment and awe”

Question Frames John Barell Developing More Curious Minds

What is the evidence, data? What are our feelings?What are the important facts? How are they related?

Consequences?Future Actions?Outcomes/implications?Predictions/effects?New Questions/Conclusions?Related, typical, model, ideal cases?Situations/experiences?How are these cases/situations similar or different?What conclusions can we draw from the comparisons?Patterns evident from the past?History/causes?Assumptions/precedentsWhy?How do we know?

ASK A QUESTION

FIND THE GAP

• Question Stems for Thinkers

• What do I wonder about?… • How could this impact other (people, environments, systems) • What does this mean to me ….? • How will the consequences influence other (people, environments,

systems)? • How does reminds me of other (ideas, concepts, experiences)? • How is this related or connected to…? • What suprises or fascinates me is…? • Why is this important ?… • How do I feel…?

• What are my tentative conclusions about this…?

• What am I learning through this inquiry? …• • What am I finding out about my thinking processes…?• • How does this connect to my own experiences…?•

Involving Students in Meaningful Questioning Activities

Generating Questions that will:• Reinforce prior knowledge

• Add to existing knowledge

• Investigate impact

• Discover or suggest possible outcomes

• Provide critical, creative or caring responses

In our classrooms…1. What questioning is working well in our classrooms?

2. What challenges are we facing in developing students questioning skills and dispositions?

3. How will we further develop students questioning skills and dispositions?

Transfer Tasks

Goal.• To Review the

purpose and strategies for Transfer Tasks

The ability to transfer a task

• Is the ability to think and act flexibly with what one knows…

How do we know what we know?

• We know we have learned when…

• Understanding shows it’s face when people can think and act flexibly around what they know.

GRASPG. Given = What do you know?

R. Required = What do you want to know? A. Analysis = What formula can you use? S. Solution = Show your work P. Paraphrase = State the answer in a

sentence

• G• R • A• S• P

Transfer tasks= Knowing the learners

• So we can identify skills, knowledge and content gaps for next teaching…

• Instead of grasping at straws!

Concept Review

Goal• To review the

concept ‘Navigation’ for depth purpose and relevance

Ensuring Depth• Does how concept

have relevance for our students?

• How does it a respond to our student data….strengths / weaknesses/ gaps?

• How is student voice evident

• What are the inter-concept connections

•

Reflect-Review- Revise- Renew

• How do we know what’s working?

• How can we ensure authenticity and depth of review?

• Do we all share the same understanding of mapping the concept?

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Links

Chic FooteChristine SmithHelix Consulting+ 64 21832646

chic.foote@helix.ac.nzchristine.smith@helix.ac.nz