This document discusses questions asked by students in different educational settings and how to foster a classroom culture where student questions guide inquiry and learning. It notes that research shows children ask over half the questions at home, but less than 5% of questions in nursery school and under 15% in high school. Most student questions in high school are lower level questions. The document suggests having students separate questions into open-ended and closed questions, adding more open-ended questions that have no single right answer and require thinking.

2. “Research shows that in the home, children initiate
significantly more than half of all questions. Though
school is supposedly designed to offer a rich
language and learning environment, Tizard and
Hughes showed that children ask less than 5% of the
questions at nursery school. This percentage doesn’t
improve much with time, with students in high
school asking less than 15% of all questions, most of
these being lower level questions.

3. How can teachers foster
a classroom culture
where student questions
guide inquiry and
learning?

4. One of my favorite things to do on the weekends
is to visit antique stores. Not only do I love history,
but I love a good mystery?
On my last picking adventure I found a few items
that I just couldn’t live without.
As you think about this object, what questions
come to mind?

5. Closed or thin questions have a single correct
answer. The answers can be found in text, or
are fact-based answers.
When? Where? Who? How many?

6. Open or thick questions have no one right
answer. The answers cannot be readily found and
require some thinking.
Why do you think…? What if…?
How would you feel…? What might…?

7. Separate your questions into open and closed
questions.
If you only have one or two open questions, add
more questions to your chart.

9. During and English Language Arts
lesson, Mrs. Jones had her students
read a printed version of the story
Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
When the students finished they
were guided to an online version so
they would have two different
accounts of the same event. To
guide student thinking , Mrs. Jones
asked the students to gather at the
front of the room for a discussion.
She posed the following questions
to guide their thinking.

10. • What was learned about Goldilocks?
• What are the key ideas in the story?
• What might have happened if the bears
had not left their home?
• Is it ever OK to go into a stranger’s
house?
• What did the bears have for breakfast?
• Who found Goldilocks in baby bear’s
bed?
• How do you think it might feel to find a
little girl in your house?
• What other stories have you read
where the main characters act in
unsafe ways?

11. What type of tasks promote…
Wonderment?