1. Wednesday, December 5, 2018 1:00 – 2:00 PM, ET
Learn How to Ask Better Questions with the Question Formulation Technique
Wednesday, December 5, 2018
1:00 – 2:00 PM, ET

2. BEFORE WE BEGIN During the webinar… please provide feedback!
After the webinar… survey, slides, recording, and more!

3. QUESTIONS?
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Or wait until the end.

4. WEBINAR JOB AID
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6. Today’s Speakers Luz Santana Andrew P. Minigan
Co-Founder and Co-Director
Right Question Institute
Andrew P. Minigan
Director of Strategy, Education Program
Right Question Institute

7. Where are you joining from today?
Tell us in the chat pod!
Luz and Andrew
(Cambridge, MA)
Alex (Astoria, NY)

8. Learn How to Ask Better Questions with the Question Formulation Technique (QFT)
Luz Santana, Co-Director
Andrew P. Minigan, Director of Strategy, Education Program

9. A Working Webinar

10. Poll: What are you interested in learning about?
How the QFT can support my research.
How the QFT can support my students’ research.
How the QFT can support teaching and learning in my classroom.

11. Acknowledgments
We are deeply grateful to The National Science Foundation and The Hummingbird Fund for their generous support of the Right Question Institute’s work in education. Thank you to Rocio Chavela and Alexandra Longo for their support and making possible this webinar.

12. Free Resources
visit to find materials from today’s webinar

13. Overview Questions & Learning An experience in the QFT for research
Preliminary results on the QFT for research
Some students are not asking questions
Examples of the QFT in the classroom
A few closing words

14. Questions & Learning

15. “All learning must begin with the posing of a question.”
– Richard Feynman
Physicist, Nobel Laureate

16. “If you are a researcher you are trying to figure out what the question is as well as what the answer is.”
“You want to find the question that is sufficiently easy that you might be able to answer it, and sufficiently hard that the answer is interesting.”
– Edward Witten
Physicist, Institute of Advanced Study

17. “There can be no thinking without questioning—no purposeful study of the past, nor any serious planning for the future.”
- David Hackett Fischer
University Professor Emeritus of History
Brandeis University

18. The Right Question Institute

19. An Experience in the QFT for Research

20. Identify Research Topic
Write down some topics you might consider for research. Please list them. Choose one topic you are considering for your research.

21. Rules for Producing Questions
Ask as many questions as you can about your research topic
Do not stop to answer, analyze, or judge questions
Write down every question exactly as it comes to mind
Change any statements into questions
How might following these rules be different from how you usually produce questions?

22. Produce Questions Ask questions about the research topic you chose
Follow the rules
Number the questions as you produce them

23. Work with Closed and Open-ended Questions
Definitions
Closed-ended questions can be answered with a “yes,” “no,” or with a one-word answer.
Open-ended questions require an explanation and cannot be answered with a “yes,” “no,” or with one-word.
In the column titled “O/C,” label your closed-ended questions with a “C” and your open-ended questions with an “O.”

24. Advantages & Disadvantages
Closed-ended questions
Advantages
Disadvantages

25. Advantages & Disadvantages
Open-ended questions
Advantages
Disadvantages

26. Work with Closed and Open-ended Questions
Change one question, either:
one closed-ended question and reword it so it becomes open-ended.
one open-ended question and reword it so it becomes closed-ended.
Add this new question to the bottom of your list of questions.
Closed
Open
Open
Closed

27. Rework Questions
Do you have questions that you would like to rework? If so, rework your questions and add them to the bottom of your list.

28. Prioritize
Choose three priority questions you are most interested in using to guide a research project.
Keep in mind the research topic you identified earlier
Star your three priority questions in the column titled, “priority”

29. Prioritize Your rationale for why you chose these questions
How many questions you asked

30. Further Explore
Choose one priority question you would like to use as a guide for a research project.
Produce questions about your priority question
Follow the rules
Number the questions as you produce them ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

31. Develop Research Questions and Research Agenda
From all the questions you have asked so far, choose:
one question you are glad you generated through the process
one question that may help you advance your research
Please star these questions in the columns titled, “Glad” & “Adv.”

32. Reflect
What did you learn?

33. QFT for Research on One Slide
Identified a research topic
Produced questions
Worked with open-ended and closed-ended questions
Reworked questions
Prioritized questions
Produced questions on a priority question
Developed research questions
Reflected

34. Preliminary Results on the QFT for Research

35. Agreement on having strategies
In considering what research questions…
to pursue, I have specific strategies that allow me to generate good questions.***
to investigate, I have specific strategies that allow me to prioritize which questions are the best to pursue.***
***p < .001

36. In considering what research questions to pursue, I have specific strategies that allow me to generate good questions.
1 = Strongly Disagree 2 = Disagree 3 = Slightly Disagree 4 = Slightly Agree 5 = Agree 6 = Strongly Agree

37. Beliefs about question formulation behavior
Once I have a set of questions before me, I believe that it is worthwhile to take the time to revise and improve them.***
I am able to efficiently formulate research questions.***
***p < .001

38. Confidence in question formulation skills
I am confident in my ability to formulate quality research questions.***
In developing research questions, I believe that my skills are at a high level.***
It is easy to formulate quality research questions.***
***p < .001

39. I am confident in my ability to formulate quality research questions.
1 = Strongly Disagree 2 = Disagree 3 = Slightly Disagree 4 = Slightly Agree 5 = Agree 6 = Strongly Agree

40. What did you notice about the quality of your questions?
“Improved the quality, testability, and impact.”
“Improved the quality and the quantity [of my questions.]”
“It made them more specific and allowed me to pick the best from among several similar questions.”
“Reworking my questions made my questions better and more complex.”
“Improved the quality of the question but more importantly led to new questions.”

41. Some Students Are Not Asking Questions

42. College Presidents on What College Students Should Learn
“The primary skills should be analytical skills of interpretation and inquiry. In other words, know how to frame a question.”
- Leon Botstein, President of Bard College
“…the best we can do for students is have them ask the right questions.”
- Nancy Cantor, Chancellor of University of Illinois
The New York Times, August 4, 2002

43. Yet, Only 27% of Graduates Believe College Taught Them How to Ask Their Own Questions
Alison Head
Project Information Literacy at University of Washington, 2016

44. But, the problem begins long before college...

45. Age Four: “The true age of inquisitiveness”
James Sully dubbed age four, “the true age of inquisitiveness when question after question is fired off with wondrous rapidity and pertinacity.”
Young children ask 10,000 questions per year before they begin formal schooling.
Sully, 1896
Harris, 2012

46. Question Formulation by Adolescence
Dillon, 1988, p. 199

47. Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions

48. Examples of the QFT in the Classroom
What does it look like when students learn to ask their own questions?
Examples of the QFT in the Classroom

49. Classroom Example: College Biology
Rachel Woodruff, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biology, Brandeis University Topic: Molecular Biology Purpose: To build students’ research skills and prepare them to develop their own a proposal later in the semester

50. Question Focus
Students were assigned a complex molecular biology article Ask as many questions as you can about the reading

51. Next Steps
Students generate questions about a complex article on their own
Students discuss the key attributes of a good biological research question and compare to other types of questions
Students form groups and improve their questions, based on these attributes

52. Classroom Example: College Biology
Professor: Emily Westover, Ph.D., Brandeis University Topic: Post-Exam Review Purpose: To assess what the students were not understanding about the content. They had performed poorly on a particular question on an exam.

53. Question Focus
Ask as many questions as you can about [the exam question]

54. Educator Reflections
Students were thinking more deeply about the exam question
Professor Westover was able to gather insight into why they may have had difficulty with the exam question

55. Classroom Example: Writing Fundamentals
Sun Ezzell, Professor of English, Mt. San Antonio College
Topic: Grades
Purpose:
Students use their questions to spark discussion on the article & write a response to article.
Students consider whether they should switch from letter grade to pass/no pass.

56. Question Foci
“the case against grades” (for students who read the article) or
“grades” (for students who did not read)

57. Students’ Questions Why are students intimidated against grades?
Is the grading process needed?
How does the grading system affect students?
Why do we have a grading system?
Does the grading system need improvement?
Why is it challenging to get good grades?
Why do students think school is challenging?
Why do students focus more on grading than learning?
Does the grading system help students in life?
What are your thoughts on our grading system?
Do students focus more on grading than learning?

58. Next Steps
After the activity, some students decided to switch from letter grades to pass/no pass
Led to discussion about feedback and how they can use/ share feedback for learning.
Sun gained insight into student thinking

59. Students’ Reflections
“I discovered that by asking questions about the article it was easier to understand the article and the meaning behind it.”
“I learned that by doing the question exploration it can help you not be stuck when you do not understand the material.”
“The [QFT] was an amazing group activity...I loved that no one was excluded...”
“When we come up with our own questions, we think more deeply.”

60. Reflect
How can you use what you learned during this webinar?

61. A Few Closing Words

62. In the Age of Google
“How should you respond when you get powerful new tools for finding answers?
Think of harder questions.”
– Clive Thompson
Journalist and Technology Blogger

63. Thank you. Now, some time for your questions
Thank you. Now, some time for your questions. We are eager to connect with you and explore how we can support your work: Register to access free resources over at:

64. Thank you! Don’t forget: Complete the webinar survey
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