This document provides a list of question prompts to encourage mathematical thinking in the classroom. The prompts are organized into categories including exemplifying, comparing, changing, generalizing, and explaining. Some example prompts are to "give an example of...", "what happens if...", "explain why...", and "convince me that...". The purpose of the prompts is to get students to think more deeply about mathematical concepts and justify, prove, or refute mathematical ideas.

1. QUESTIONS in mathematics classrooms
Adapted from Watson, A. and Mason, J. (1998) Questions and Prompts for
Mathematical Thinking, ATM.
Exemplifying,
Specialising
Completing, Deleting,
Correcting
Comparing, Sorting,
Organising
Give me one or more
examples of …
______________________________
Describe, show, tell, find
an example of …
______________________________
Is … an example of …?
______________________________
Find a counter-example of
/ to …
______________________________
Are there any special
examples of …?
What must be added /
removed / altered in order
to allow / ensure /
contradict …?
_______________________________
What can be added /
removed / altered without
affecting …?
_______________________________
Tell me what is wrong
with …
_______________________________
What needs to be changed
so that …?
What is the same and
different about …?
______________________________
Sort or organise the
following … according to
…?
______________________________
Is it or is it not …?
Changing, Varying,
Reversing, Altering
Generalising,
Conjecturing
Explaining, Justifying,
Verifying, Convincing,
Refuting
Alter an aspect of
something to see effect.
______________________________
What if …?
______________________________
If this is the answer, what
was the question?
______________________________
Do … in two (or more)
ways. What is the
quickest, easiest, …?
______________________________
Change … in response to
imposed constraints.
What happens in general?
______________________________
Is it always, sometimes,
never …?
______________________________
Describe all possible … as
succinctly as you can.
______________________________
What can change and what
has to stay the same so
that … is still true?
Explain / refute why …
______________________________
Convince me that … / give
a reason … (using or not
using …)
______________________________
How can we be sure that
…?
______________________________
Tell me what is wrong
with …
______________________________
Is it ever false that …?
(always true that …)
______________________________
Explain how … is used in
…