Types of Questions

As with the many definitions of learning, there are many sets of categories of questions. In general, the groups depend on how much information is requested and its purpose for being asked.

Closed versus Opened-Ended Questions

The most straight forward set of categories deal with how much information is requested. Closed questions are those which can be answered by a simple “yes” or “no.”  Open-ended questions require more than a simple one-word answer and so require more thought. Some suggest it needs one’s complete knowledge to answer.

Purpose Questions that Drive Thinking and Learning

The Foundation for Critical Thinking focus on how questions are used in thinking and learning because they connect thoughts and information in our minds. Their 11 categories are questions of purpose, information, interpretation, assumption, implication, point of view, relevance, accuracy, precision, consistency, and logic. The greater variety of categories may add more structure to one’s approach to learning.

Questions for Research

Beagle Learning is developing practices for college students, focusing on exploratory or Big Goal questions followed by Natural Next questions.  It’s easier to whittle down a big idea into the next step questions than build smaller ideas into a bigger vision. Being able to pick the path of your learning and thinking using Big Goal questions is the ultimate goal of the education system.

 Modeling Through the Teacher’s Questions

Leslie Owen Wilson of the Second Principle identifies the five key categories teachers should use to help students learn how to ask questions. They are factual, convergent, divergent, evaluative, and a combination of the first four. The key is to ask questions that don’t have one correct answer to inspire higher-level thinking and feeling. Her website examines learning through the ongoing discoveries in neuroscience.

Detail versus Conceptual Questions in Learning

Thinker Academy shares research on the benefit of asking yourself questions as you study.  The two categories of questions are detail and process questions.  Detail questions require focused factual information to complete, often in a single sentence.  Conceptual questions require the integration of multiple pieces of information, so multiple sentences are needed. In an experiment with students, conceptual questions created deeper learning compared to detail questions (and no questions at all!).

Metacognition and Questions

Metacognition is the awareness and understanding of one’s thought processes.  A useful tool to improve our learning and creativity is to think about our thinking. And self-questioning is an important step in finding out about how you think and learn (and so much more).

Take an inventory of what you feel you know about a topic. Then, explore how the chunks of information fit together.  Notice the similarity to concept mapping?  But how well can you find the right “chunk” at the right time?  This is an abstraction, the process of dealing with ideas rather than facts.  I like to think of my knowledge as a set of tools.  Can I find the proper tools in the best sequence to build or fix something?