Dive Brief:
- In a learning environment where most answers to definitive questions an educator poses can be found on a smartphone, Right Question Institute Executive Director Dan Rothstein asserts that it is vital for teachers to help students develop substantive lines of inquiry in addition to answers, eSchool News reports.
- Rothstein co-developed the Question Formulation Technique, which began as a way for medical patients to learn more about their situations — though it can also be applied in education, encouraging students to produce questions in response to a designated focus, working with closed- and open-ended questions and prioritizing them by particular importance.
- Teachers have responded positively, noting they are seeing increased engagement among particular students who don't usually speak up, and that it can be used as an introductory tool to a new chapter or unit, or as a method of formative or summative assessment.
Dive Insight:
Using this process for assessment is an interesting approach, especially given the ongoing concern around a pronounced emphasis on standardized summative assessments. In a recent Education Dive interview, Kathryn Mitchell Pierce, an assistant professor at the Saint Louis University School of Education, said that many administrators were concerned that K-12 students enrolling in higher ed didn't always display the critical thinking skills that would help them be successful in their postsecondary education. As educators and administrators debate alternative means to assess these skills, asking students to help devise the questions in addition to the answers could be one way to chart improvement.
It could also be a positive approach when student use of smartphones and other devices will likely only increase as schools and teachers incorporate more tech tools and approaches into the classroom. This is despite the fact that many educators have reported they aren't necessarily fond of smartphones in the classroom. Supporting particularly innovative educators who engage learners with or without tech while emphasizing its importance as a tool to arrive at a solution, and not the solution itself, is key.