Thinking
I have had some good conversations with teachers the last few days discussing the question, “Well, how do I integrate technology so I’m just not teaching the same way as I always have?” My response has been to reference one of my recent posts on the Flow of Information. To restate quickly and simply, the Flow of Information goes like this: Finding Information, Evaluating Information, Acquiring Information, Analyzing Information, Presenting Information and Attributing Information. As an example, an English class is studying Shakespeare. First, look through the curriculum to view the objectives. After combining multiple objectives, determine what evidence would show that the students have met the objectives. From that ending, create a student-centered environment that allows students to apply their skills as they move through the steps in the model, meeting the objectives, and providing evidence of their learning.
All along the way, the teacher needs to guide students through the process with good questions. The teacher also has to prompt students to ask their own questions, developing their own understanding of the material and information. This is particularly important in the analyzing information stage, but is relevant to all the stages.
In Jamie McKenzie’s book Beyond Technology: Questioning, Research and the Information Literate School, he proposes a questioning toolkit. These questions are tools that can be used depending on the task at hand. Students and teachers can develop more tools (types of questions) if the situation warrants it.
What question is most suitable to the task at hand?
Essential Questions - big, complex; cannot be answered simply; probe issues such as: life, death, identity, purpose, invention, inspiration
Subsidiary Questions - smaller questions that grow out of essential questions; these questions can often be grouped in families
Hypothetical Questions - what might happen if...?; project a theory into the future
Telling Questions - pointed questions that provide some sort of fact to support or refute an idea or thought
Planning Questions - what are the sources, sequence and pacing to complete the task?
Organizing Questions - how will we organize our finding so that they make sense
Probing Questions - questions that get below the surface information
Sorting and Sifting Questions - evaluating data; cutting through useless information
Clarification Questions - defining words and meanings; examining article, essay or argument for coherence and logic; determining underlying assumptions
Strategic Questions - similar to planning questions; what path do I follow to achieve meaning
Elaborating Questions - what does this really mean?
Unanswerable Questions - related to essential questions; questions that may have no definative answer - just light shed on them
Inventive Questions - questions that turn things upside down to create something new
Provocative Questions - focus on doubt, disbelief and skepticism; designed to challenge conventional wisodm
Irrelevant Questions - questions that force us into the unknown
Divergent Questions - questions that focus on the opposite of the main target
Irreverant Questions - questions that look into areas that are off-limits; usually unwelcomed
If we use the Flow of Information model, along with the questioning toolkit, we transform the classroom into a student-centered, inquiry-centered place, the structure of which has been carefully planned by the teacher, proving that the teacher is still the decisive element in the classroom. It also puts the spotlight on learning and not technology - a flaw all too common in the technology integration process.
How can we develop the questioning ability of students and teachers? How do we encourage more essential, strategic and elaborating questions, rather than the all-too-common telling questions?
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