“I haven’t failed, I’ve found 10,000 ways that don’t work.” -Thomas Edison

When I read this quote I think of how driven Edison was by “what if” and “I wonder” type questions. Great minds have always asked questions of the world around them.

Asking questions is a natural mode of learning and growing, at the basis of human and social coordinates. Asking questions, beside being a method to assess acquired knowledge, is a natural way of teaching and stimulating relational and deep knowledge. A student’s question requires, for an answer, knowledge (www.conceptmaps.it).

Varying Questions is considered a strategy for differentiating instruction in the classroom. When discussing this strategy many people include a study of Bloom’s Taxonomy and the various levels of questioning that occur in a classroom.

While I have trained many groups in how to vary questions, the most powerful discussion occurs after I show the slide entitled, “Assessment vs. Sincere.”

Assessment questions are
•    Questions we know the answers to
•    Questions we ask in order to check or monitor our students

Sincere questions are
•    Questions we don’t know the answers to
•    Questions we ponder and wonder about
•    Questions that require further research by both teacher and student

Do you ask enough sincere questions–you know, the ones you don’t know the answer to and aren’t in the teacher’s guide?

Conduct your own research project on effective questioning. Chart the number of assessment questions asked in your classroom and the number of sincere questions asked in your classroom in a given day. Now consciously vary the questioning in your room by increasing the number of sincere questions that are asked. What happens to the energy level in your room?

I have had more results with students by encouraging the asking and answering of sincere questions. I believe the same thing will happen to you.

“Schools, and what happens in them, are vital to our children’s future success. We must design schools that will prepare young people to thrive in the 21st century, to master rigorous literacy, math, and science standards and have the ability to think critically, be creative, and respond to new challenges with agility. Those are the keys that will unlock doors for our young people. We simply need to pause long enough to listen and observe—child’s play.” -Steven T. Webb