Exercising Minds through Questioning

Bright students often come to class thinking they must know all the right answers. What they (and many adults) may not realize is that thinking is not driven by answers, but by questions. It is the sense of wonder and curiosity that drives understanding. As the old saying goes…The more you know, the more you realize you don’t know. The more you learn about a subject, the more you realize there is to know. Perhaps having students list thoughtful questions at the conclusion of a unit would be a better determiner of knowledge gained than taking a test.

Young people learn to develop inquiring minds when they hear their parents and teachers ask thoughtful questions of themselves and others. One way to do this is to use Socratic Questioning. Socratic questions help to

• Clarify issues
• Question assumptions
• Justify statements
• Understand the ideas of others
• Imagine consequences
• Relate different issues 

Divergent questions are also useful. They usually begin with words or phrases such as

• Imagine…
• Suppose…
• Predict…
• If…, then…
• How might…
• Can you create…
• What are some possible consequences…

Here is one example of questioning for young children in kindergarten or first grade after reading and discussing Jack and the Beanstalk.

Q. What did Jack do when he got to the giant's castle?"

A. Jack hid from the giant, found the goose that lays the golden eggs, was discovered by the giant, fled, reached the bottom of the vine, and then chopped it down. The giant, of course, tumbles down, breaks his neck, and Jack lives happily ever after with his mother and his newly found wealth.

Q. Did Jack trespass illegally? (In kindergarten terms, "Did Jack go into someone's house where he did not belong?")

A. Yes!

Q. Did Jack steal the goose that lays golden eggs?"

A. Yes!

Q. Did Jack, then, refuse to give back what did not belong to him?

A. Yes!

Q. Then did Jack escape down the bean vine and cause the giant to be killed?"

A. Yes!

Q. If Jack trespassed, stole, and murdered the giant, why is the giant the villain of this story?

Metacognition—Thinking about Your Thinking

Metacognition is the act of analyzing one’s own thinking process. It is an important strategy to use when solving problems and making connections (whether academic or social).

We can learn a lot about our kids by just sitting down and asking probing questions about their thinking. Some statements and questions that you might use are

• Think out loud for me.
• Tell me about the strategies you are using.
• Tell me more about that.
• What are some things you will have to think about before beginning this?
• When did you start having trouble?
• What was it that confused you?
• Is this problem like any other problem you have experienced?
• Is there another way of looking at this?
• How did you develop that idea?

One time I was working with a class on some difficult math problems. After giving the students time to work individually, they still struggled. I suggested that we stop and share some of the strategies that students were using and how they were thinking about the problem. One rather quiet boy began explaining his thinking. Suddenly several others blurted out, “That will never work!!” (I didn’t think it would work either.) Instead of cutting the boy off, I told the others to be polite and hear him out. As he explained his thinking, the correct solution slowly emerged. Yes, he had approached the dilemma in an unusual way, but it had led to the correct answer. There are often many different interesting ways to approach a problem and that’s one of the things that makes this exciting.

It will help your own children or students if you model your own metacognition. When beset with a task, talk out loud and state how you plan to approach it. Does it remind you of something you have done before (i.e. Are there connections from the past that can help you with the current problem?). Anticipate what information or tools you will need to accomplish the task. Give yourself a timeline.

If your strategy isn’t working, stop and talk out loud about it. What might be a different approach that you could try?

Rather than focusing on judging, focus on different possible game plans. What works and what doesn’t work?

When students learn to use metacognition, they become more confident in their ability to solve new problems. They learn what to do when they don’t know what to do, and by understanding how individual kids think, you may better understand their choices in the future.