The average teacher asks 350 questions a day. The kinds of questions asked fall into two categories: directed (also called "low-level") questions and open-ended (also called "high-level") questions. Of these 350 questions, most are directed.

By analyzing our own questioning techniques (e.g., how we ask questions, why we ask questions), we can find the balance between directed and open-ended questions that will most effectively encourage the development of higher-level thinking skills in our students.

Let's look more closely at the differences between directed and open-ended questions.

Directed questions and open-ended questions play equally important roles in learning.

Directed questions should not be the focus of a project. However, they aid students in understanding key facts and, therefore, form the foundation of all projects.

Directed questions are asked in the traditional I-R-E format (Initiate, Response, Evaluate). The teacher asks the question, a student responds, and the teacher evaluates whether the student was correct. This process gives teachers a quick read on where students are in terms of factual knowledge and recall.

In addition, a teacher can use directed questions to guide student thought. The information students attain through directed questioning provides them with a knowledge base from which they can answer open-ended questions. Students need to know the factual information before they can confidently answer open-ended questions.

However, the overuse of directed questions might discourage student participation because only one student can be correct. Students may become frustrated when they are not called on or do not know the answer. Interspersing directed and open-ended questions will give all students a chance to participate at their own levels.

An open-ended question can be the focus of a project if it provides the discussion structure that leads students to the key understandings of a topic. Though not all open-ended questions will help focus a project, any question that does focus a project needs to be open-ended.

Open-ended questions require students to research, investigate, or reflect before responding. Students are invited to combine their factual knowledge in innovative, meaningful ways.

Open-ended questions have a plethora of possible answers, which allows all students to participate and delve deeper into the topic. The answer to an open-ended question can be a hypothesis, an opinion, a concept, an idea or a series of research-based facts. In many circumstances, it is not the answer itself, but the process by which the answer was determined that is important when responding to an open-ended question.

Open-ended questions can be challenging and exciting to answer; however, students need to develop a foundation of knowledge to be able to answer the questions so they do not become confused, discouraged or frustrated. We can achieve this by asking directed questions to guide student thought as they explore the open-ended question.

In short, directed questions and open-ended questions can be defined as follows.

Directed Questions:

• Are based on facts.
• Have one correct response.
• Support the development of deeper understanding.

Open-ended Questions:

• Are based on concepts or ideas.
• Have at least one correct answer.
• Encourage all students to participate.
• Require students to research, investigate, or reflect before responding.

However, suppose we had a directed question that we wanted to make open-ended. Here are some examples of directed questions that have been modified to make them open-ended. Notice that the open-ended question subsumes the directed question, allows for more than one answer, and requires a more in-depth answer.

By asking a combination of open-ended questions and directed questions, we can effectively draw out deeper thinking in our students while teaching them key facts. Open-ended questions prompt students to expand the way they think about a topic, while directed questions guide their thoughts and encourage them to make connections.

After posing an open-ended question, challenge students to think about what directed questions they need to answer before they can answer the open-ended question. This process not only helps students to organize their thoughts, uncover areas of research, and develop their critical thinking skills, but also models problem-solving skills by teaching them to break down a complex problem into smaller, achievable tasks.

Now that we have looked at how to ask questions, let's look at why we ask questions. What is our objective? The kind of question we ask our students changes depending on how far along we have progressed in a project and on the mastery level of our students.

As students proceed through a project, we can identify two levels of progression: horizontal and vertical. Horizontal progression enhances the breadth of student knowledge and occurs as students work through different stages of a project. Vertical progression enhances the depth of student knowledge and occurs as students gain mastery of each topic. Asking questions allows us to increase the breadth and depth of students' learning.

The major horizontal questioning stages encountered in the classroom are outlined below. You'll notice that the elements of the KWL chart have been integrated into this list.

At the Beginning of a Project:

Brainstorming: The driving question is posed to get students' juices flowing about a topic. Follow-up questions are asked to encourage students to expand their thinking on the driving question and to gather their thoughts and share their previous knowledge on the topic. (K)

Organization: These driving questions help organize students' gathered thoughts into several overarching themes. Students begin to generate their own questions about the topic.

During a Project:

Exploration: The teacher chooses about five overarching ideas (key understandings) to focus on and asks open-ended questions to encourage students to expand their thinking on a topic and elaborate on those thoughts. Students consider what they need to learn in order to answer the driving question. (W)

Guidance: Teachers ask clarifying questions to guide student thinking on a topic. These questions are meant to point students in the right direction or get to them back on track. These questions help students develop their knowledge base for the overarching themes.

Clarification: Student ask questions to clarify a point or a concept.

During or at the End of a Project:

Discussion: Now that students have begun developing a knowledge base, the teacher asks a question to solicit student ideas and opinions and to promote debate and discussion. Students may also ask questions that promote debate and discussion. Discussions help wrap up a project by tying up loose ends and aiding the class as a whole to draw conclusions, where appropriate.

Evaluation: Driving questions assess students' understanding of the essential learning and core concepts of the project. Students can evaluate their own progress using this technique. These questions can be directed (e.g., a multiple-choice test or I-R-E questions) or open-ended (e.g., essay questions or discussion-type questions). Students reflect on what they have learned. (L)

Open-ended questions and directed questions are sometimes referred to as "high-level" questions and "low-level" questions, respectively. This categorization is derived from the hierarchy of educational goals, known as Bloom's Taxonomy.

Bloom's Taxonomy (see chart below) addresses the vertical progression of knowledge. As students master a topic, their ability to make use of the material increases. When students first encounter a topic, they approach the material by memorizing key facts; however, as they master the material, they become able to analyze the information and use it in new and creative ways.

Directed questions address the first two levels of learning: knowledge and comprehension. Open-ended questions cover the next four stages. By being aware of the different stages of learning, teachers can become more successful at enabling student learning by skillfully asking a combination of directed and open-ended questions.

Directed Questions:

• Are based on facts.
• Have one correct response.
• Support the development of deeper understanding.

Open-ended uestions:

• Are based on concepts or ideas.
• Have at least one correct answer.
• Encourage all students to participate.
• Require students to research, investigate or reflect before responding.

Key Points:

• Directed questions form the foundation of all projects.
• An open-ended question can be the focus of a project if it provides the discussion structure to lead students to the key understandings of a topic.
• Our questioning changes as students develop greater breadth and depth of knowledge.

The driving question focuses all other questions in a project. To better understand the relationship between the driving question, open-ended questions, and directed questions, imagine the relationship as a pyramid.

Directed questions allow students to build a knowledge base of factual information. They occur in the greatest numbers, but their answers are the least complex. Students then combine these facts to form concepts, which allow them to answer open-ended questions. Finally, the culmination of these concepts will lead them to answer one or two driving questions, the answers to which are the most complex and encompassing.

If you think about the sheer amount of learning that needs to take place in order to answer each question type, then the pyramid would be inverted.

Another way to think about the relationship is through the metaphor of a forest. If the driving question is a forest, then open-ended questions are the trees in that forest, and directed questions are the leaves on the trees. The driving question subsumes the open-ended questions, which, in turn, subsume the directed questions. To further extend the metaphor, the five key understandings would be the five different species of trees in our forest. Now you can see the forest for the trees!

Now that we understand what a driving question is, what makes an effective driving question?

Driving questions are also called essential questions, project questions, and umbrella questions. Effective driving questions include the following features:

1. Are open-ended. Driving questions lead to debate and discussion, and therefore, are motivating to students

2. Are objective. Driving questions do not imply whether something is good or bad, better or worse.

3. Focus and drive the project. Students use the question as a springboard to formulate their own questions. All learning and research in the project are geared toward answering the driving question.

4. Focus on key understandings. Generally each project will have about five overarching ideas; the driving question subsumes all of them.

5. Are answerable. With diligence and dedication, students are able to answer the driving question. While it should not be an easy process, it should be manageable.

6. Require research, investigation, and reflection. Driving questions may have yes-or-no answers; however, your students need to support their answers with the research and knowledge they have acquired throughout the project.

7. Call on a student's previous knowledge and help students apply their learning to new situations.

8. Link basic skills and concepts to students' lives and the real world. Students are more motivated and involved when the topic they are studying is relevant to their lives and to the real world.

9. Integrate standards from a variety of disciplines. Interdisciplinary lesson plans promote teamwork among colleagues and encourage students to make connections between disciplines.

10. Encourage multiple approaches to problem solving. Driving questions allow for more than one way to solve a problem and express the solution.

Remember the driving question we posed at the beginning of this module? How do the 10 features of an effective driving question relate to our original driving question?

"How can we motivate students, increase participation, and encourage deeper thinking in our classroom?"

Each feature relates to all three parts of our driving question; however, some features relate to specific parts in more obvious ways.

From these tables, we can see that by employing the ten features of effective driving questions, we can make our questions more motivating to students, increase student participation, and encourage deeper thinking.

How do we know if our questions employ the 10 features of effective driving questions? By comparing our questions against this chart, we will be able to see if they meet the criteria.

Let's look at some questions that didn't meet the criteria and the reasons why.

We know now what effective driving questions are, but how do we use them in our classroom? How can we take one driving question and use it as the basis for an entire project? If a driving question is effective, it will provide a springboard for you and your students to formulate many related open-ended questions, questions that need to be answered before the driving question can be tackled. Furthermore, as you explore these open-ended questions, you will discover even more directed questions that will have to be answered first. Let us take a look at the driving question for this module and think about how to map it out.

Driving Question:
"How can we motivate students, increase participation, and encourage deeper thinking in our classrooms?"

Open-ended Questions:
Think about the key understandings you want students to learn through this driving question. Form these key understandings into open-ended questions and write them down on a piece of paper.

1. How can I motivate students:

• What are students interested in?
• What motivates them?
• How can we make our questions more relevant to their lives?
• What kind of measure do we use?

2. How can I increase participation?

• What does "participation" really mean to us?
• What opportunities will we provide to allow students to participate?

3. How can I encourage deeper thinking in my classroom?

• What constitutes deeper thinking?
• How can students' answers reflect this deeper thinking?
• How can we ask questions so that they raise the kind of answers that reflect this deeper thinking?

Directed Questions:
For each open-ended question, think of five facts that students need to know in order to answer that question. Transform each fact into directed questions that will assist students in answering your previously selected open-ended questions.

Motivating Students:

1. What is the demographic profile of your students?
2. What questions have students asked on their own?
3. What kinds of activities are they participating in? What is prominent in pop culture right now? What kind of music do they listen to?
4. Who are the people that are important in your students' lives? Who do they have frequent contact with? (e.g., parents, relatives, friends, fellow members of a religious organization or other club?) What kinds of knowledge, experiences, and resources are they exposed to?
5. Who are their heroes? What qualities do they value in these heroes?

Increasing participation:

1. How many students usually raise their hands when you ask a question?
2. If a student raises his/her hand, does this mean that (s)he is motivated?
3. What kinds of techniques do others use to motivate students?
4. What are your expectations regarding participation?
5. Have these expectations been clearly laid out for your students?

Encouraging deeper thinking:

1. Have you emphasized that the thinking process is as important (if not more important) than the right answer?
2. Have you modeled problem solving techniques for your students?
3. Have they had time to practice these problem solving techniques?
4. Do your questions allow for deeper thinking?
5. Do some of your students have special challenges which that prevent them from expressing their deep thinking? (e.g., speech disorders or other language barriers)

1. Is our school safe?
2. Why can't I have a dinosaur as a pet?
3. How does our school impact the environment?
4. What makes a good sneaker?
5. What does it mean to be rich?
6. What makes a good commercial?
7. Are laws fair?
8. Does fair mean equal?
9. Does free speech mean you can say anything?
10. How does discrimination impact me?
11. What are the ingredients for a successful business?
12. Why do people migrate from one place to another?
13. How can our school save electricity?
14. Are the new democracies truly democratic?
15. What impression did Impressionism leave?
16. How does art reflect the time period in which it is created?
17. Is our drinking water safe?
18. Which flashlight batteries are most cost-effective?
19. Who discovered America?
20. What makes a good proof?
21. Do commercials make me buy things?
22. Is cloning safe?
23. Should prayer be allowed in schools?
24. What makes a good reader?
25. How do wars start?
26. How many different species of insects live in the field behind our school?
27. What is the relationship between crime and population density in the U.S.?

Here are guidelines that will help you write your own questions Try to write at least ten questions. If you get stuck, you may reference this list of question starters worksheet.

As you write driving questions, remember these steps:

1. Review your key understandings and standards. Look for big ideas or concepts.
2. Brainstorm a list of possible open-ended questions that link two of these big ideas or concepts. For example, if you would like students to understand the impact of discrimination on their lives and you would like them to understand the Civil Rights Movement in this country, you can connect these two big ideas by creating a driving question such as, "How does the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s impact my life today?"
3. Review your questions. Can you make the question more succinct? Can you make the question less leading and more exciting for students? Does your question get at the key understandings and standards of your project?
4. Identify your best questions. Which questions do you think would motivate your students the most? Which questions are more closely tied to your key understandings? Are there questions that subsume other questions?
5. Give a list of questions to students to see which questions they find motivating and exciting.

If you get stuck trying to create an effective driving question, here are some starters to get you going. While many of these starters are open-ended, some can be answered with yes or no. In those cases, students need to provide written evidence to support their answers.

1. What makes a good ___ ?
2. What are the ingredients for a successful ___?
3. What is the best way to ___?
4. Is there a relationship between ___ and ___?
5. What are the advantages and disadvantages of ___?
6. What will happen if ____?
7. How are ____ and ____ different?
8. How many different ____ are there?
9. Did ___ influence ____?
10. Is _____ really important?
11. In what ways did ____ influence _____?
12. What would ___ be without ___?