The power of rich questions

It is often said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Here are two pictures created using social network analysis software that illustrate the differences between two types of conversation.

The charts represent the conversations between students in a classroom in response to closed and open-ended questions. The red dots represent the students, Jane, Tom, Dick, Harry etc. and the blue dots are their responses, numbers 1,2,3...etc.

The first image is the students' response to a closed question such as "What color is the sky?" It shows how the conversation comes to an abrupt halt. One main idea. Once said, there is nothing more to say.


The second image is the student's response to an open-ended discussable question/task, such as "Thinking about all the different emotions you feel, e.g. fear, sadness, happiness, etc. how do they impact on what you do/how you respond to these situations?" It shows a conversation that develops, and generates an explosion of ideas. And someone who had nothing to say.


The questions that generate the richest conversations catalyze reminders to related concepts, which belong in families which Ludwig Wittgenstein called "language games".

For example, when we are asked to think about a motor car engine, we might recall piston, crankshaft, valves, petrol, lubricating oil, water to cool the engine exhaust etc. When we are asked to think about emotions we might recall anger, fear, sadness, happiness etc. Sometimes, the questions are so rich and powerful, they help us create/represent knowledge about how the concepts connect/relate to each other.

It is our ability to ask these kinds of questions, that help us become capable "knowledge workers", to work with others to create new knowledge from our observations of what is happening in the world that we may not have experienced or noticed before. We could of course, use Blooms Taxonomy, to help us think about the different kinds of questions/thinking operations we could use. You might also consult Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blooms_taxonomy.

So here's a method to craft fantastic question sequences/thinking methods:

1. Describe a topic/issue in five words or less.
2. What is the context for the learning activity? Discipline, focus, age and experience etc.
3. What will/could excite, engage or amaze the learner?
4. Make a list of all the ideas/concepts/relationships between concepts we would like the learner to discover.
5. Make a list of all the ideas/concepts/relationships between concepts we could expect the learner to already know.
6. Craft open-ended RICH questions that explore the topic in engaging/amazing ways. Include scaffolds, rich language etc.
7. How will we organize the questions into a logical sequence that builds knowledge as the learner follows the pathway? Start with the tacit knowledge/prior knowledge/a simple experiment and end up a question for creating a model, proposing a theory, reaching a decision, devising an action plan etc.