Questioning
as Thinking:
A Metacognitive
Framework
Nance S. Wilson & Linda Smetana
Metacognition, or “thinking about thinking,” is the
process of monitoring and regulating cognition.
In classroom settings, monitoring and regulating
both require students to be active learners as they
engage in challenging tasks. When students engaged
in metacognition monitor, they are checking their
understanding; when they regulate, they choose
appropriate strategies for improving understanding
(Schraw, 2002). In other words, students monitor
comprehension by assessing their progress toward
learning goals, and they regulate by making decisions
about strategies to help them achieve performance tasks.
As students become aware of their own thinking, or
metacognition, they are better able to determine how to
locate the information they need to craft a response or
determine whether their responses make sense. Helping
students understand their own thinking enables them to
become better learners (Costa, 1991). As they engage in
metacognition, students are focused on active learning
and performance. Focusing on performance is a key
to successfully motivating and teaching middle grades
students. Performance goals help students develop
a stronger sense of self-efficacy, a construct strongly
related to academic achievement (Midgley, Anderman, &
Hicks, 1995).
The purpose of this article is to present Questioning
as Thinking (QAT), a metacognitive framework that
helps teachers and students focus on performance. QAT
combines components of three widely-used strategies:
Think-Alouds, Question Answer Relationships (QAR)
(Raphael, 1986), and Self-Questioning. Together, these
three strategies give students and teachers the language
and processes for explicitly monitoring and regulating
cognition. In addition, students and teachers engage in
active learning when they implement these strategies,
which may lead to improved student performance and
achievement. The article describes QAT and its benefits,
using vignettes from two middle grades teachers,
Jennifer and Barbara (pseudonyms are used for all
names), who implemented the framework in
their classrooms.
This article reflects the following This We Believe characteristics: Active Learning — Multiple Learning Approaches — Varied Assessments
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Middle School Journal November 2009
Introducing Questioning as
Thinking (QAT)
Barbara, a seventh and eighth grade science teacher,
and Jennifer, a seventh and eighth grade language arts
teacher, team-teach in a rural Midwestern middle school.
They are also members of the school leadership team
and have worked together to improve literacy across the
content areas at their school. Barbara and Jennifer see
learning as something that requires reasoning, flexible
thinking, problem solving, and reflection (Rice & Dolgin,
2005), and they understand that early adolescence is a
time of great intellectual growth during which students
benefit from active learning experiences (Kellough &
Kellough, 2008). Barbara and Jennifer had wanted to
find a metacognitive framework that would guide their
students in becoming active learners who think about
text, and they found Questioning as Thinking (QAT).
QAT is a metacognitive framework that allows
teachers and students to actively incorporate strategies
for asking and answering questions. In the first vignette,
Jennifer is modeling active reading for her students using
QAT (Figure 1). She has created a learning environment
in which students are encouraged to take on challenging
tasks, process deeply, and focus on performance so that
they can feel good about themselves as students as they
become independent thinkers and learners; her students
are engaging in metacognition (Midgley, Anderman &
Hicks, 1995).
Notice how Jennifer shares her thinking about the
text with students as she asks questions that monitor and
regulate her thinking. Questioning is an effective place
to begin metacognition instruction because it is a daily
part of the school experience (Neufeld, 2005). Teachers
ask students questions to assess comprehension of text,
lecture, and hands-on experience. The application of
different types of questions leads to the implementation
of different metacognitive strategies. For instance, a
science teacher may ask, “What is a homogeneous
mixture?” A student may respond by scanning a written
text for the answer; he may refer to an experiment, a
kind of visual text, in which the class worked with
different mixtures; or, he may use his prior knowledge of
the word mixture to connect with his understanding of
matter as gathered from within the written or visual text.
In each case, the student is engaging in metacognition;
he is using a strategy to respond to the question and then
monitoring the application of this strategy to determine
Figure 1 Jennifer models metacognition before reading a memoir to
her seventh grade students.
As we begin reading the first memoir, “My Mother’s Blue Bowl,” I
want to first look at the title. This title is interesting. As I read it, I
ask myself an On My Own question. What do I already know that
I can connect to the text? This is important because it is using the
pre-reading strategy of thinking about things I already know
that can connect me to the text. I immediately think of two blue
crystal bowls my own mom has in her china cabinet—one was
a gift from my father, and we only use it on special occasions like
holidays, and the other is a Swedish crystal bowl that my sister and
I bought for her so that, eventually, we would both have a blue
bowl. I wonder if the blue bowl that the author is talking about has
the same importance in her family as the blue bowls have in my
family? I am also going to use what I know about memoirs to get
me ready to read the text. From our previous discussions, I know
that a memoir is about a specific moment in time that is important
in shaping who the author is. I’m expecting this to revolve in some
way around this bowl and for the essay to tell me the importance
of it. This is my purpose in reading this, and I need to keep this in
mind as I read the memoir.
Questioning as Thinking provides opportunities for teachers to demonstrate
thinking processes.
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21
QAT is a metacognitive framework that allows teachers and students to
actively incorporate strategies for asking and answering questions.
a response. In QAT, teachers move beyond telling
students the answers to describing how they developed
the questions and how they determined the information
needed to answer the questions. Since young adolescents
learn through individual experiences (Piaget, 1960),
QAT provides students with the opportunity to think
about text. As a result, students are active, not passive,
learners.
A group of students practices Questioning as Thinking strategies.
22
Middle School Journal November 2009
The next several sections discuss the three
components of the QAT framework—Think-Alouds,
QAR, and Self-Questioning—using examples from
Jennifer and Barbara’s classes.
Think-Aloud
A Think-Aloud is an explicit demonstration of cognition
in which a teacher or student shares his thinking while
solving a problem, answering a question, or reading a
text (Kucan & Beck, 1997). It is a tool teachers use to
demonstrate the how and why of applying the framework
of QAT. The Think-Aloud demonstrates the steps needed
when asking and answering questions and under what
conditions the learner should implement them.
In a Think-Aloud, the teacher models questioning
strategies to provide students with a window into the
thinking an expert uses when questioning. The teacher
should begin with a text and a question with which
students may have some difficulty. If the text is not
difficult, the students will function automatically, and
they will see the metacognitive activity as something
that could hinder functioning (Sternberg, 1998).
After choosing an appropriate text and question, the
teacher identifies the metacognitive task that students
would most likely use and prepares a script of the
metacognitive actions students would undertake. A welldeveloped Think-Aloud allows students to construct the
understanding they need to use QAT to learn from text.
Figure 2 contains the Think-Aloud script Barbara
used for studying stars. Notice how she explicitly shares
with her students the metacognitive strategies required
to actively complete the task. In this model, Barbara
explains the purpose of the lesson for both the content
area and QAT, and she provides the what, how, and why
for implementing QAT. Barbara shares her thoughts
about the conditions under which a particular kind of
thinking occurs. She then explains how to implement
the framework, ending with a statement specifying the
actions to be taken.
Think-Alouds like the one Barbara modeled are
a key strategy for helping students understand the
metacognitive nature of questioning. When properly
implemented, they can make the curriculum more
complex and challenging for students, as teachers have
more opportunities to demonstrate effective thinking
processes for developing deep understanding of ideas
in text.
Question Answer Relationships (QAR)
When scaffolding students’ thinking about complex
content, teachers use the language of QAR (Raphael,
1986). The common vocabulary established through
QAR guides students and teachers as they enact the
QAT framework and become independent thinkers
and learners.
Figure 2 Barbara models metacognitive strategies for her students.
The first question asks what happens in the process of nuclear
fusion. I know this might be an ongoing process, so I’m going to
look under the main heading, The Beginning and End of Stars. If I
scan that section, I see nuclear fusion in italics, and it says, “As the
sphere becomes denser, it gets hotter and the hydrogen changes to
helium in a process called nuclear fusion.” Therefore, nuclear fusion
must be the process of hydrogen changing into helium due to
increased temperatures. By looking at the section headings, I was
able to find the correct section and quickly scan the paragraph to
find the answer to this Right There question.
The next question asks the names of some of the different types
of stars. Again, I’m going back to page 590, which I have just read,
and I notice the main heading, Different Types of Stars. I scan this
paragraph, and I find the sentence that says, “Some types of stars
include main-sequence stars, giants, supergiants, and white dwarf
stars.” This will answer the Right There question. I quickly scanned
the paragraph and found that main-sequence stars, giants,
supergiants, and white dwarfs are some different types of stars.
Now that we have some introductory information on the life cycle
of a star, another thing we need to think about is an effective way
to take notes about this material. We have used a lot of different
note-taking strategies so far this year. [Barbara displays some of
the techniques the class has used.] Which one would make sense
for the type of information we are covering? Let’s look at our
objective again, which is to know the different stages of the life
cycle of a star. We’ve been given a preview to that information in
what we have read so far. Since it is going to be a series of steps in
the sequence of the life cycle and there is going to be information
we need to know about each step, the vocabulary flip chart will be
a good way to display the information in a way that will be easy to
remember and understand. This way we will be able to see what
comes first, second, third, and so on in the sequence, but we will
also be able to lift the flap to find out the characteristics of each of
the stages.
Raphael developed QAR to assist students when
responding to questions. The success of QAR has
been validated by research across content areas and
genres (Raphael & Au, 2005). QAR fits into the QAT
framework because it requires students to think about
the relationship between the text and the question. It
also gives students the tools to identify the type of
information needed to answer questions.
Raphael (1986) identified two broad categories for
finding information to answer questions: In the Book
and In My Head. Within each of these categories are
two subcategories of questions. In the Book answers
are found in a text in response to either Right There
questions or Think and Search questions. Right There
questions have responses that can be found explicitly
in a text, whereas Think and Search questions require
students to put together information from multiple
paragraphs or chapters. In My Head answers require
students to use prior knowledge when responding
to questions. This category includes Author and Me
questions, which ask students to use prior knowledge
with information in the text, and On My Own questions,
which do not require any reading of the text. The
Think and Search and Author and Me questions
encourage students to think within and across texts, thus
challenging them to consider implied ideas.
QAR gives students a vocabulary to use when talking
about their metacognition. Recall the question presented
to the science student earlier, “What is a homogeneous
mixture?” The student who scans the textbook and
finds an answer is using Right There strategies. The
student who refers to the experiment in class and
puts ideas together from the hands-on experience is
using Think and Search strategies. The third student
uses Author and Me strategies when she integrates her
previous knowledge of a mixture with a text definition of
homogeneous. In each instance, the student is engaging in
metacognition and using the QAR language to describe
his or her thinking. They are engaged in active learning
while working with an exploratory curriculum and
sharing ideas as part of a learning community.
As shown in Figure 3, Barbara uses QAT to provide
students with the tools necessary to look deeply at the
science content. She begins by introducing common
language for discussing the relationships between
questions and answers. After reading a section of the text
on technology and science, she models QAR.
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QAR is an effective starting point for QAT because
it uses a task with which students are comfortable and
familiar—responding to questions—and it provides a
common language for discussing the ways they monitor
and regulate cognition. Most students have experienced
situations in which they did not know how to answer a
question and knew they would be evaluated based on
this question. By beginning instruction of metacognition
with the familiar task of answering difficult questions,
teachers may get student “buy-in.”
The common language provided by QAR gives
students and teachers the tools to describe metacognitive
thinking. When tackling a difficult question, teachers
and students use the language of QAR to describe how
the question relates to the text and/or the learner and to
understand why particular actions are taken to respond
to the question. In short, QAR begins the process of
Questioning as Thinking because it helps students to
use metacognition with a familiar task and provides the
language for doing so.
Understanding that experience helps the brain
develop (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 1999), Barbara
and Jennifer give their students guided practice in
reading text, reviewing questions, analyzing the
Figure 3 Barbara introduces her students to Questioning as Thinking.
Follow along as I read the section on computers and technology on
page 22. The first after-reading question asks, “How is technology
helpful to scientists?” I think I remember reading that, so I am going
to go back to the textbook to see is I can find it. There it is. In the
first paragraph it says, “By using technology, life scientists are able
to find information and solve problems in new ways. It also allows
scientists to get information that wasn’t available previously.”
Because I found it right there in the book, this is an In the Book
question.
The second question asks, “Which tool do you think would be the
most important to a life scientist? Why?” Well, the question wants
to know what I think, so I’m pretty sure this will be an In My Head
question. First, I need to think about all the tools I already know
scientists use. I know they use lots of measuring equipment like
meter sticks, balances, and graduated cylinders. They also use
microscopes, computers, and dissecting equipment. Of these tools,
I think the microscope would be the most important, because
without that, we wouldn’t know very much about microscopic
organisms like bacteria, viruses, and other germs. If we didn’t know
about these things, we would not be able to prevent the spread of
many communicable diseases. All of this information came from
my head, therefore, this is an In My Head question.
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Middle School Journal November 2009
relationship between the text and the question, and
describing the thinking used to respond to the
question. For instance, in Figure 4 Jennifer guides
students through a metacognitive analysis of questions
as they read an article about how to read content on a
website. As she does this, she engages her students in
active learning that will help them tackle challenging
curriculum using QAT.
Self-Questioning
The QAR strategy gives students the metacognitive tools
and language for answering questions; but answering
Figure 4 Jennifer guides her students in Questioning as Thinking as
she explains a reading assignment.
Now we’re going to look at the reading selection on page 159. As
always, there are questions printed within this selection. Let’s read
those questions before you begin reading. First of all, notice the
location of the first two questions. Based on where the questions
are, what does this tell you about where you will find the answers?
Since they are printed on the picture of the web page, you can
expect to find the answers here on the web page.
According to your QAR brochure, text organization will help you
answer Think and Search questions. Number one asks, “Which of
the links below would you click to see an overview of the entire
NOVA site?” How will you answer this question? Where might you
look for information that will help you answer it? [Class discusses
answers to the questions.]Have any of you taken advantage of a
website’s site map before? If you did not know about site maps, you
would most likely have to think and search for the answer.
The second question asks, “Where do you think you would click
to find information about the history of movie special effects?”
Once again, where you look for this answer will depend on your
background knowledge of navigating a website. As with the last
question, if you have experience with websites this will be an On My
Own question; if you do not, it will be an Author and Me question.
Question number three asks, “Can it be proved that ‘virtual
humans’ are better than live actors? Why, or why not?” What do
you think? [Class discusses answers to the questions.] What are the
key words in this question? Remember, this chapter also focuses on
fact and opinion. It asks if it can be proved. Does that sound like
they want fact or opinion? Facts and being proved go together, so
that would rule out an In My Head QAR. Now we know the answer
will be an In the Book QAR – either Right There or Think and
Search. I’ll leave that for you to decide as you answer that question.
I’d also like you to tell which QAR you used when you do answer
number three. Be sure to explain how you made your decision.
questions is not enough. Students need to learn to selfquestion when independently reading text, listening to
a lecture, or participating in a hands-on experience. As
teachers help students learn to use metacognitive skills,
they empower students to take charge of their learning
from text.
Self-questioning is a research-based practice
(Duke & Pearson, 2002; Sternberg, 1998) that helps
students independently monitor and regulate their
thinking. They monitor cognition by asking questions
such as “Does that make sense?” and “What is my
learning goal?” These questions help students track their
learning. Students regulate their thinking by asking
and answering questions such as, “How can I relate
this information to what I already know?” and “What
do I need to do to remember the ideas presented?”
The answers to these questions inform the learner of
the metacognitive tasks necessary for learning. Both
types of questions—monitoring and regulating—lead
learners beyond acquiring simple factual information
toward deep understanding. Students come to realize
that learning requires thinking and that thinking is
stimulated by the kinds of questions we ask.
Returning again to the science example, the class
is conducting an experiment in which they have two
glasses—one that contains oil and water and one that
contains water mixed with dissolved sugar. The glass
containing water and sugar represents a homogenous
mixture because it is uniform in composition and
appearance, whereas the glass containing water and
oil is heterogeneous because of the visible difference
in the substances. When the students observe the
glasses, they should ask, “What do I know about
homogeneous mixtures, and what am I learning in
this experiment?” This question should stimulate the
use metacognitive strategies to monitor and regulate
learning. A student who uses QAT recognizes that this
Author and Me question requires him to connect his
textbook knowledge of mixtures to the visual text of the
experiment. In addition, as he monitors his learning,
he evaluates his understanding of the texts to develop a
personal interpretation of the types of mixtures, using
the question as a guide. Notice how the language of
QAR helps the student regulate strategy use and actively
engage in the material. Using QAR, the student can
review any question he is asked to determine if the
source of his response comes from the experiment
(Right There), his prior knowledge (On My Own), or a
combination of the two (Author and Me).
A teacher guides students through self-questioning during a lesson.
In a QAT classroom, the student faced with
the mixture experiment would be asked to develop
questions that would aid in her understanding of the
types of mixtures. She would also be asked to develop a
definition of mixtures that demonstrates understanding.
In short, using QAT leads to inquiry-oriented instruction
and the expectation that students will think and learn
independently. A teacher might guide the student by
asking her if her questions required him to think deeply
about mixtures (Think and Search or Author and Me),
or if they led her to surface definitions (Right There).
Self-questioning and the language of QAR are
scaffolds and tools within the QAT framework that
enable students to engage in metacognition. QAR
provides the language and promotes student buy-in,
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Instruction in QAT should enable students to transfer
their metacognitive skills to new situations.
while self-questioning gives learners the tools to be
independent.
In Figure 5, Barbara introduces her students to SelfQuestioning. Notice how she plans for instruction in the
asking questions stage of QAT by setting a purpose for
student involvement and providing guided practice for
students to implement QAT.
Instructing students in QAT
As Barbara and Jennifer demonstrated in the vignettes,
instruction in QAT requires teachers to model
metacognition, teach the QAR language, instruct
students in asking questions, and lead students to be
actively engaged within a community of collaborative,
metacognitive learners. The teacher must remember to
guide students through the process, closely monitoring
their progress and only providing support when
necessary (Pressley, 2002). The teacher must allow ample
time for students to learn how to use the framework and
guide them in becoming independent learners. This can
occur in multiple steps, such as working with the whole
class, having students work in small groups, and using
prompts to help students respond to questions.
Figure 6 shows how Jennifer guides students
to engage in metacognition during QAT. Notice
how the written prompts guide students through
the metacognitive actions needed to respond to the
questions. Throughout the framework, students engage
Figure 5 Barbara guides her students through Questioning as Thinking in a lesson on protists and fungi.
I want you to think about all the questions you asked yourself before
you came into my class today. I think you will be surprised at the
number of questions you asked without even realizing you asked a
question. [Barbara generates a list of questions on the board that she
asked herself or the students asked themselves that day, emphasizing
the number of questions we ask ourselves without really thinking
about it.]
Now I want you to think about our overall goal for this unit: What are
the general characteristics of protists and fungi? In order to answer
this question, what do you think you will have to know? [Barbara
writes a list of ideas on the board that she and her students generate,
emphasizing the connection between the list on the board and the
basic life processes of all living things that were studied earlier in the
year.]
[Barbara explains the strategy she uses to guide students through
QAT.] Students are given a typed list of all the main headings and
subheadings from this unit. They work in groups of three or four to
write questions based on these headings and subheadings. This task
gets their minds thinking about the information in the unit without
giving them the entire section to read, and it engages them in the
questioning mode of thinking. After they have generated a list of
questions for each section, we get together as a class and share all the
questions the class generated. The students should see relationships
between the questions they asked and the questions that came
from other groups. Next, I help them make connections to an earlier
activity in which we brainstormed ideas about what we would need
to know to identify the general characteristics of protists and fungi.
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Middle School Journal November 2009
They should see a direct correlation between what we need to know
and what the textbook is going to tell us.
Then we get into the actual reading of the text. We read section one
on protists together. I stop after each heading or subheading and
ask a question that came to mind as I was reading. For example,
in the General Characteristics section I wondered, what makes
protists different from the other kingdoms? The question is looking
for the differences between protists and the other kingdoms. I think
I remember reading something about this in the second paragraph.
I am going to scan the paragraph and see if I can find any of the key
words. In the second line, it says, “other kingdoms,” so I will read this
more carefully, and it says, “unlike fungi, plants, and animals, protists
do not have specialized tissues.” Therefore, this is a Right There
question. What makes a protist different from the other kingdoms?
They do not have specialized tissues.
As I read the next section under the heading Protists and Food and
the subheading Producing Food, I wondered where a protist producer
would live. It doesn’t say it directly in the text. The text does tell me
that since they are producers, they make their own food. It also says
that the chloroplasts collect energy from the sun to carry out that
process. That leads me to believe that protist producers must live
in areas that receive a lot of light. They would not be able to live in
a cave, because it would be too dark. So, I used some information
from the text and what I know about where light is located to figure
out a possible answer to this question. This must be an Author and
Me question. I am going to keep this question in mind as I continue
reading, and maybe it will give me a more detailed answer later on.
in Think-Aloud as they share their thinking about
asking and answering questions. When students engage
in deep, meaningful discussion as they question texts,
they have the opportunity to reflect on the thinking
processes of their peers as well as that of their teacher. As
this discussion occurs, it creates a learning community
centered on thinking and learning complex curriculum.
After students are guided through the QAT
framework, they need opportunities to demonstrate their
thinking independently. These opportunities should
take place over a series of texts and situations. Moreover,
instruction in QAT should enable students to transfer
their metacognitive skills to new situations beyond those
provided by the individual teacher in the classroom.
Jennifer and Barbara provide multiple opportunities
for students to build metacognitive skills. They instruct
students in the application of the QAT framework across
a variety of content texts at various levels of difficulty.
When their students are able to apply the framework
and articulate their thinking about text, they are
demonstrating metacognitive skills that will support
them in their development as independent learners.
Conclusion
The QAT framework melds three strategies—ThinkAloud, QAR, and Self-Questioning—into a unified
approach for asking and answering questions during
instructional activities. When teaching students to
use QAT, the teacher guides them in becoming active
learners who self-question. QAT provides students with
a framework for learning that transcends the disciplines
and departmental divisions of the school. When
implemented on a school-wide basis, students internalize
the QAT framework as a process for comprehending
texts, regardless of their complexity. The framework gives
students and teachers a common language to use when
talking about their metacognition, and it enables students
Figure 6 Guiding students during Questioning as Thinking (QAT)
Question
Highly supportive
clues to help you use
Questioning as Thinking
Moderately supportive
clues to help you use
Questioning as Thinking
Minimally supportive
clues to help you use
Questioning as Thinking
• Develop a Think and Search
Stop reading at the end
of paragraph 4 and ask a
question that helps you
remember the points made
by the author in support of his
beliefs that hunting animals
for food is acceptable.
• Develop a Think and
• Develop a Think and Search
Search question.
• Scan the text for ideas
supporting hunting.
• Put together the
ideas presented.
• Create a response to your
question.
question.
• Put together the ideas
presented.
• Create a response to your
question.
After reading the piece,
explain why you agree or
disagree with the statement
“Killing animals is acceptable if
you are going to eat the meat
from the animal?”
• This is an Author and Me
• This is an Author and Me
question
• Scan the text to discover
what the author says.
• Analyze the author’s
comments.
• Compare/Contrast the
author’s comments to your
own beliefs.
• Develop a response that
includes your beliefs and the
author’s beliefs.
question.
• Compare/Contrast the
author’s comments to your
own beliefs.
• Develop a response that
includes your beliefs and the
author’s beliefs.
question.
• Create a response to your
question.
• This is an Author and Me
question.
• Develop a response that
includes your beliefs and the
author’s beliefs.
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to become empowered, more engaged, and increasingly
self-directed in their learning (Abdullah, 2001).
Extensions
1. How does Questioning as Thinking compare to instructional
strategies you currently employ in your classroom?
2. How will you make your students aware of the Question
Answer Relationships in the lessons you will teach this week?
What kinds of metacognitive strategies will you teach to help
guide your students’ thinking?
To further explore questioning in middle grades classrooms,
read “Questioning Techniques of Fifth and Sixth Grade Reading
Teachers in the September 2005 issue of MSJ.
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Nance S. Wilson is an assistant professor in the department of teaching and learning principals at the University of Central Florida, Orlando.
E-mail: nwilson@mail.ucf.edu
Linda Smetana is an associate professor in the department of educational psychology at California State University-East Bay.
E-mail: linda.smetana@csueastbay.edu
Middle Grades Assessment
Measure. Evaluate. Improve.
The 16 characteristics of This We Believe: Keys to Educating Young Adolescents
serve as the basis for National Middle School Association’s Middle Grades
Assessment. This affordable, research-based, online assessment gives you data
you can use to effect positive change for your students and faculty.
For more information, visit
www.nmsa.org/schoolassessment
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Middle School Journal November 2009