Dear parents,
Happy Monday!
To continue our discussion on new age skills and learning techniques, today we’d like to talk about the advantages of teaching students how to ask questions.
Our school integrates what’s called the Question Formulation Technique in our lessons. In the simplest words possible, it’s a classroom technique where students learn by asking questions.
Studies actually show that learning by asking questions taps comprehension and memory enhancement. What’s more, it teaches students to take ownership of their learning.
The QFT Framework is built around two components: QFocus and the QFT rules.
QFocus
Usually, a visual aid is employed that students can use as the focal point of their inquiry – it can vary from an abstract image to a tree or to a person.
It can also be a simple statement such as: “The sky is blue” – anything works, as long as it isn’t a question.
The Rules
Why is it important to ask questions?
Photo by Startup Stock Photos from Pexels
Curiosity has inspired all scientific discoveries.
Why does an apple fall from a tree?
How do birds fly?
How do planets stay in orbit?
Asking questions is the beginning of self-driven learning about a subject and encourages us to think like scientists, unrelentingly making our own discoveries.
What are the advantages?
Safe Learning Environment
Just having the opportunity to ask questions is empowering for students to take a more active role in their own education. They are also more engaged and the classroom becomes a dynamic environment.
Builds Integrated Life Skills
Just the act of formulating the right question to draw out the answer you need already taps many integrated skills like critical thinking, research, and resourcefulness.
Encourages Meta-Cognition
Meta-cognition means awareness of your thought process. By developing this skill, students will be able to pinpoint their own intellectual strengths and develop them as they grow older. They are not only learning new words or equations – they are learning how to think efficiently and effectively.
Trains students to be proactive and have initiative in learning
Being proactive is one of the most important traits a student can have in this new job economy. Right now, so much of our growth is in our hands.
We can learn almost anything under the sun, create new relationships, and even build amazing things much faster and easier than we ever could before.
Dear parents, isn’t it great that we’re discovering new, more effective ways to teach our youth? We can hardly wait for what the future will bring.
Until the next post!
Bugg, Julie & Mcdaniel, Mark. (2012). Selective Benefits of Question Self-Generation and Answering for Remembering Expository Text. Journal of Educational Psychology. 104. 922. 10.1037/a0028661.