Teaching Students How to Ask Better Questions in Episode 132 of Transition Tuesday

Описание: If you’d like to receive our Episode 132 bonus resources to help students learn how to ask more and better questions, click this link http://tensigma.org/episode132bonus

According to ASCD.org, students’ ability to function as adults is an increasingly complex world depends upon their ability to ask questions and seek answers. This important skill also impacts student’s academic life too because succeeding on assessments requires understanding the attributes and purposes of questions as much as knowing how to answer them.

Here are some benefits of asking questions and learning how to ask better questions:
• Learning new things
• Leads to becoming a lifelong learner
• Decreases the amount of time it takes to learn things
• Understanding of roles and responsibilities
• Improving relationships (personal and professional)
• Promotes leadership skills
• Helps to understanding challenge and potentially identify better solutions
• Promotes better communication

One of the most important methods for teaching students to ask better questions is to create a culture of inquiry as suggested by John Spencer. As one would expect, the foundation for success with this approach is centered around respect because students are taught (and encouraged) to be inquisitive and asks questions, but in a respectful manner. This concept is critical for helping students prepare for their transition to adult life because they are naturally questioning things like what they want to do, where they want to live, what education or training they need, etc.

One key question to teach students to ask themselves (and others) is why? This will lead to further exploration, better understanding, becoming more independent, taking ownership in leading their transition process, and more tools to advocate for themselves effectively.

Other important things to consider when teaching students to ask better questions include:
• Giving feedback on questions (including having peers participate in the process)
• Modeling the process by asking clarifying questions like “why was this effective” or “why is that challenging?”
• Practice these skills often and provide scaffolding to improve the skills
• Explaining and model different types of questions
• Encourage students to ask questions in different social settings
• Allow students to “chase their curiosity in moments of excitement”
• Reduce fear of asking questions and making it ok to say “I don’t know and let’s explore it”

Lastly, educators need to embrace the concept of teaching students to ask better questions because by doing so we better prepare students for adult life and being life-long learners.

As part of each episode of Transition Tuesday, we provide additional tips, teacher tools, and resources related to the topics we cover. For this week’s bonus, we are providing a PDF with several resources to help students with asking better questions, which can be accessed by clicking this link - http://tensigma.org/episode132bonus

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We hope you enjoyed this episode and that the information we shared about teaching students to ask questions and become life-long learners.