1. Any Questions?
How Asking the Right Questions Can Promote
Critical Thinking
Nancy Burkhalter, PhD
Senior English Language Fellow
LIPETSK, RUSSIA
APRIL 11-12

2. Effect of ‘dead’ questions
• Students’ thinking turns off.
• They give up responsibility for thinking.
• No more investigation is needed.
• Questioning stops.
• Curiosity dies.

3. Lower Order vs. Higher Order
At what temperature does
water freeze at sea level?
What year did Mexico
obtain its independence
from Spain?
Why does water near bridges
and in cities freeze later in
the winter than water in
lakes in rural areas?
How did Mexico’s movement
for independence from
Spain affect people in
neighboring countries?

4. How do higher level questions
help learning?
Students learn how to
inquire, question, seek, and
examine information.

5. Thinking is driven by questions,
not answers.
Richard Paul
Foundation for Critical Thinking

6. How do I make PINK?

7. Which do I satisfy?
My ego
My student’s brain

8. Definition of Critical Thinking
Using methods that employ
analyze
evaluate
create

9. Six kinds of questions
• Knowledge
• Comprehension
• Application
• Analysis
• Evaluation
• Creation

10. Creation
Evaluation HIGH
Analysis
Application
Comprehension
Knowledge
Cognitive
Difficulty
Bloom’s Taxonomy
of Levels of Abstraction
of Questions

12. Goldilocks
and the
Three
Bears
• Now is the time

13. Remember Questions:
Facts and details
• observe and recall information
• know dates, events, places
Question Cues:
list, define, tell, describe, identify, label,
collect, examine, tabulate, quote, name

14. Examples of Remember Questions
1. Who was Goldilocks?
2. Where did she live?
3. What did her mother
tell her not to do?

15. Comprehension Questions:
Understanding
• understand information
• grasp meaning
• translate knowledge into new context
Question Cues:
summarize, describe, contrast, associate,
distinguish, differentiate, discuss, paraphrase,
explain, demonstrate

16. Examples of Comprehension
Questions
1. What is this story is about?
2. What is the main idea?
3. What did Goldilocks
look like?

17. Application Questions:
Use in new context
• use methods, concepts, theories in new
situations
• solve problems using skills or knowledge
Question Cues:
apply, demonstrate, calculate, show, solve,
examine, relate, change, classify, experiment,
assess, chart, construct

18. Examples of Application Questions
1.Draw a map showing Goldilock's house, the
path in the forest, the bear's house, etc.
2. Show through action how
Goldilocks sat in the chairs,
ate the porridge, etc.
3. How were the bears like real people?

19. Analysis Questions:
Apply to other questions or areas
• see patterns
• organize parts
• identify components
Question Cues:
analyze, order, explain, compare, infer,
discriminate, illustrate, outline, distinguish,
why

20. Examples of Analysis Questions
1. How did each bear
react to what Goldilocks
did?
2. How would you react?
3. Compare Goldilocks
to any of your friends.

21. Evaluation Questions:
Judge, measure, compare
• compare and discriminate between ideas
• assess value of theories, presentations
• predict, draw conclusions
Question Cues:
assess, decide, rank, grade, test, measure,
recommend, convince, select, justify, explain,
discriminate, support, conclude, compare

22. Examples of Evaluation Questions
1. Why were the bears angry with Goldilocks?
2. What do you think she
learned by going into that
house?
3. Would you have gone in the
bear's house? Why/why not?

23. Create Questions:
Generate new ideas or insights
• use old ideas to create new ones
• generalize from given facts
• relate knowledge from several areas
Question Cues:
combine, integrate, modify, rearrange, plan,
create, design, invent, what if?, compose,
formulate, generalize, revise, synthesize

24. Examples of Creation Questions
1. Do all bears act like humans?
2. Do you know any other stories
about little girls or boys who escaped
from danger?
3. Make a puppet, then
act out its part in the story.

26. A lesson using Bloom’s taxonomy
of questions
“The Global Child”
International adoption and parental
responsibility

27. Remember
list, define, tell, describe, identify, show, label, collect,
examine, tabulate, quote, name
1. What country is Raquel from?
2. What does the word indigenous
mean?

28. Comprehension
summarize, describe, contrast, associate, distinguish, diffe
rentiate, discuss, paraphrase, explain
1. Why did Raquel’s mother give her
up for adoption?
2. Summarize the commentator's main
idea.

29. Application
apply, demonstrate, calculate, show, solve, examine, relate
, change, classify, experiment, assess, chart, construct
1. What would you ask Raquel’s birth
mother about giving her daughter up for
adoption?
2. Can you relate any of Raquel’s feelings to
your own life?

30. Analysis
analyze, order, explain, compare, explain, infer,
discriminate, illustrate, outline, distinguish
1. Why do you think Raquel dropped
her camera?
2. Why does Raquel spend so much
time in bed when she gets home?

31. Evaluation
assess, decide, rank, grade, test, measure, recommend,
convince, select, judge, explain, discriminate, support,
conclude, compare
1. Do you think adopted children should visit
their country of birth? Why or why not?
2. What problems do you think they might
have as a result of being adopted?

32. Create
combine, integrate, modify, rearrange, plan, create, design, inven
t, what if?, compose, formulate, generalize, revise
1. Statistics show that Russians want Russian
orphans to be adopted by Russians. If that is
so, why are so few adopted by them?
2. Imagine you are Raquel. Write a diary entry
from her perspective on the day she went to
her old house.

33. Closed-ended questions…
Require short, limited-answers.

34. Open-ended questions…
Are about possibilities and reasons
that require explanations.

35. Assessment of
open-ended questions
1. Grade on
originality, completeness, organization, logic,
connection to task, etc.
2. Grade each other’s answers.
3. Write questions they have about the issue.
4. Research their questions and write an
essay/give a talk.
5. Never grade higher level questions “right or
wrong.”

36. To summarize
• Foster critical thinking with questions
requiring higher order skills: analyze, and
evaluate, and create.
• Empower your students. Ask them to think for
themselves.

37. Any questions?

38. References
Bartel, M. (2004). Encouraging creative thinking with
awareness and discovery questions. Retrieved Nov. 1, 2012,
from http://www.bartelart.com/arted/questions.html#tests
Bloom's taxonomy. Retrieved Oct. 24, 2012, from
http://www.coun.uvic.ca/learning/exams/blooms-taxonomy.html
Bloom’s taxonomy of six different levels. Retrieved Dec. 5, 2012,
from http://courseweb.unt.edu/gmayes/documents/Blooms_Taxonomy.html
Dalton, J. & Smith, D. (1986). Extending children’s special abilities
– Strategies for primary classrooms, pp 36-7. Retrieved Nov. 1,
2012, from http://www.aisa.or.ke/uploaded/downloads/aisa2010conference/
Judy_Wooster_Workshop_Handout_Applying_Blooms_Taxonomy.pdf
Numrich, C. (Ed.) (2010). The global child. Raise the issues (pp.
42-63). White Plains, NY: Pearson.