Thinking Schools
Growing Thinking Schools
From the Inside Out
www.thinkingschoolsinternational.com
1
6 Starting Points
Visual Mapping
Collaborative
networking
Thinking
skills
Developing
dispositions
Reflective
questioning
Thinking Schools
Structuring
environment
2
Why are we asking the question below?
What are the
purposes of
asking pupils
questions ?
Consider the following outcomes for students from teachers’ use of quality
questioning articulated by Jackie Acree Walsh and Beth Dankert Sattes (2011, p.3):
• Focus their thinking on specified content knowledge
• Use cognitive processing strategies to develop deep understandings and longterm retention of content
• Ask questions to clarify or extend understandings
• Monitor progress (toward learning targets through self-assessment and use of
formative feedback)
• Develop personal response-ability by using structural supports for thinking
• Contribute positively to the creation of a classroom learning community in which
thinking is valued
Thinking Schools
4
Developing Effective
Questioning Practices
“Effective use of questioning is a critical asset in every
good teacher’s toolbox. But just as a good mechanic
selects the right tool for the job and uses it correctly, a
good teacher uses questions at the right level and
follows good questioning techniques.”
William G Camp
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Thinking Schools
5
“If you should ever be charged in actual fact
with the upbringing and education
of these imaginary children of yours,
so you will make a law
that they must devote themselves especially
to the technique
of asking and answering questions.”
- Plato’s Republic
Thinking Schools
6
Wait time is essential to the development of higher order
thought processes when pupils are asked to answer a
questions.
It is the amount of time that elapses between a teacher asking
a question and asking pupils to answer.
The average teacher’s wait time is 1 second!
‘Wait time’
Wait time is essential to the development of higher order
thought processes when pupils are asked to answer a
questions.
It is the amount of time that elapses between a teacher asking
a question and asking pupils to answer.
Are you aware that…
The ‘average’ teacher asks c. 400 questions a day,
allowing less than a second for an answer, before
throwing the question to someone else, or
answering it themselves.
Steven Hastings TES, 04/07/2003
Thinking Schools
8
Impact of Increasing
“Wait Time”
for pupils
9
Thinking Schools
Impact of Increasing
“Wait Time”
for teachers
10
Thinking Schools
Developing Effective Questioning Practices
Research shows overwhelmingly that:
 Teachers use memory questions in over 70% of their
teaching time;

Teachers overemphasise fact questions in
tests and exams;

Questions in textbooks are predominantly
memory or fact questions.
Karron G Lewis ~ Centre for Teaching Effectiveness,
University of Texas

A review of 37 projects in 1988 suggested that increasing the
proportion of higher-order questions to 50% brought significant
improvement in student attitude and performance
Source: Steven Hastings TES, 04/07/2003
Thinking Schools
11
Evaluation
Creating
Synthesis
Evaluating
Application
Comprehension
Thinking Schools
Blooming Thinking
Analysis
Analysing
Applying
Understanding
Knowledge
Remembering
Bloom
Anderson
12
Developing Effective
Questioning Practices
“If we expect pupils to engage in more
creative and stimulating thought
processes, we, as teachers must
encourage them by asking higher level
questions.”
Karron G Lewis ~ Centre for Teaching Effectiveness,
University of Texas
Thinking Schools
13
• Purposeful (asked to achieve a specific purpose)
• Phrased clearly (pupils understand what they mean)
• Brief (stated in as few words as possible)
• Thought provoking (they stimulate thought and response)
• Probing (involve follow-on or leading questions and ‘digging deeper’)
• Limited in scope (multiple part questions are confusing)
• Adapted to the level of the class (appropriate and differentiated)
• Art Costa and Bena Kallick
Other Possible Effective and Engaging
Questioning Practices…
Plan your questions, however…
• Be prepared to ask follow up questions that are logical and
sequential
• Decide if the question is directed at the whole class, a group or an
individual
• Pose questions that allow the pupils to have ‘thinking time’
• Balance your questions between fact and thought
• Ask questions in a conversational tone
• Design questions that elicit sustained responses
Thinking Schools
15
Other Possible Practices To Stimulate Students’
Questioning
• Stop asking so many questions yourself!
• Expect pupils to pose more questions both spoken and written
• Encourage pupils to question other pupils during discussion
• Welcome questions when they come
• Give time to allow students to pose follow up questions
• Collect, discuss, categorise and develop pupils’ questions
Thinking Schools
16
Level of Thinking
and Questioning
Complex Questions
Creating
Evaluating
Analysing
Simple
Questions
Applying
Understanding
Remembering
Description
Combining information
to create something
new
Thinking Language
Question Starters
Invent
Design
Invent
Improve
Rank
Evaluate
Decide
Produce
Compose
Construct
How could we design…?
Could we add …?
What would happen if …?
Conclude
Assess
check
Why do you think about…?
Why do you prefer this?
What is the best …?
Break into parts to
examine more closely
and understand
relationships
Compare
Classify
Examine
Contrast
Order
Analyse
How are they
similar/different?
How does it work ...?
What is the evidence …?
Applying knowledge to
a new situation or
experience
Show
Apply
Illustrate
Use
Construct
What other examples are
there of this?
Rephrasing and
interpreting to show
understanding
Restate
Explain
Interpret
Translate
Summarise infer
What does this mean?
What is the point?
Can you explain …?
Factual answers,
recall and recognition
Repeat
Recall
List
Who…?
What …?
Where…?
When…?
Which…?
Making judgements
and assessments and
coming to conclusions
Name
State
Count
Isidor Rabi (1898 – 1988), a Nobel Prize
winner in Physics, is reported to have said
that when he was at school, his mother did
not ask him at the end of the day what he had
learnt, but what questions he had asked.
“The test of a good teacher is not how
many questions he can ask his pupils
that they will readily answer, but how
many questions he inspires them to ask
him which he finds it hard to answer.”
- Alice Wellington Rollins (1847 – 1897)
Analyse the question ~ What do you mean by…?
Rephrase the question ~ Are you saying …?
Turn the question back to the pupil ~ What do you
think?
Ask a supporting question ~ I wonder whether …?
Suggest a line of enquiry ~ Perhaps we could …
Q Matrix (Spencer Kagan)
Is
Did
Can
Would
Will
Might
What
Where
/When
Which
Who
Why
How
20
Thinking Schools
“Children often come
into school adept at
asking questions but
leave 13 years later
with a much
atrophied questionasking muscle.”
Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana
Make Just One Change: Teach
Students to Ask their Own
Questions, 2011