Asking Different Kinds of Questions

Time to complete

40 minutes 

What principles, ground rules, and concepts are at play here?

1. Disagreement is fine. It’s fruitful. Don’t try to win it or paper it over. Explore it.
2. Build on what others say
3. Consider the possibility that, on any given issue, your information may be incomplete
4. If you want to hear a different conversation, you have to hold a different conversation
5. Listen in the way you would like to be heard

Background (10 minutes)

Isidor I. Rabi, a Nobel laureate in physics was once asked, ''Why did you become a scientist, rather than a doctor or lawyer or businessman, like the other kids in your neighborhood?'' Dr. Rabi's answer, so the story goes, was ''My mother made me a scientist without ever intending it. Every other Jewish mother in Brooklyn would ask her child after school: 'So? Did you learn anything today?'  But not my mother. She always asked me a different question. 'Izzy,' she would say, 'did you ask a good question today?' That difference - asking good questions -made me become a scientist!”

There are times in the classroom when we want our questions to be invitations for mutual engagement – to engage the students and each other in ways that foster everyone’s understanding of what’s being discussed.  Such questions are in an approachable voice, plurals, with tentativeness and use invitational stems and contain positive presuppositions.  Here are some tips:

Differences between “a credible voice” and “an approachable voice”

• Credible voice: sounds like we know what you are doing or that you know the material basically a flat, firm voice.
• Approachable voice: pleasant, with different inflection, etc. which indicates interest in what the other is saying and why they are saying it.

Plurals.  Making it a plural means there’s less of a risk, more than one possibility.  For example:

• What are some of your goals?
• What ideas do you have?
• What outcomes do you seek?
• What alternatives are you considering?

There are four main question-asking “moves” that move beyond factual recall:

• To dig deeper into what people say and understand their concerns about how this issue affects their lives
• To build on, or help people connect to, what others say
• To shift/or broaden perspective
• Summarizing questions

See attached sheet for a few examples of each kind of question.

The Activity (20 min)

After introducing the students to the different kinds of questions, and sharing the example sheet, put them in groups of four or five.

Tell them you would like them to have a discussion about one of three issues:

• Some districts are considering starting high school later in the morning (between 8:30 and 9:00 a.m.).  What do you think about this idea?
• Some people are advocating that all students should have to dedicate a year or two after high school to paid community service of some sort.  What do you think of this idea?
• The Supreme Court recently reversed longstanding precedent that allowed universities some leeway to consider an applicant's race as a way to better balance student bodies.  Do you think this was the right decision?

Now tell students you would like them to practice the questions in the following way:

• Student 1 picks an issue/topic and gives an opinion about that issue, speaking for 2-3 minutes.
• The others in the group listen and then a different asks a question of all others in the group that either digs deeper into what the first student said, or that builds on or in some way connects to what that first person said. 
• Others respond both by answering the last question, building on something some has said, or asking another question – digging deeper, building on, connecting, shifting perspective or summarizing question.
• With 2 minutes left, the teacher asks the students to start to wrap-up and to talk in their small groups about the experience. How did it go? Were some questions more productive than others? If so, which ones and why? Etc.

Closing conversation (5-10 minutes)

When all come back together the teacher repeats the summary discussion, but in a modified way.

Start with “How did it go?” and get an answer from one group. After that group responds, the teacher asks if anyone in any other group had a similar experience. Generate a conversation of sharing from group to group.

After a few comments or short discussion across groups ask: Were some questions more productive than others? If so, which ones and why?

After that group responds, the teacher asks if anyone in any other group had a similar experience. Generate a conversation of sharing from group to group.

Follow-Up Ideas

• Over the coming few days, when you are sitting talking about something with friends, try asking one or more of these kinds of questions as part of the conversation, and see how that goes.

• Next time you have a conversation with a family member, try asking one or more of these kinds of questions as part of the conversation.