Christie Wuebbles, a math teacher at Wallace-Rose Hill High School in Duplin County, began using project-based learning (PBL) to teach her math classes last year. She expected this approach would help her students apply math skills to understand real-world phenomena and to make choices about their own learning. There was just one problem. Her students weren’t curious.

She tried a new tactic and let them choose their own topics. But this did not inspire the change she was hoping for. She shared a video on the exponential growth of the cane toad population in Australia. As a result, her students all chose topics about animal populations instead of thinking more creatively or divergently to identify a real-world connection beyond animal populations.

So she tried again. This year, Ms. Wuebbles worked to help get her students thinking beyond animal populations. She included a requirement that students conduct their own experiment to collect their own data. But when I asked her how things were going, she told me students still weren’t curious about anything. They were struggling to identify topics.

This is a theme I have seen across classrooms, schools, and counties over my last few years of coaching. Teachers are frustrated that their students don’t ask questions or if they do, they only ask questions about directions, assignments, and rubrics. Often, these questions have already been answered by the teacher or the answers can be found by reading (or re-reading) class materials. Teachers lament that students will ask these low-level, recall questions without even thinking to look for the answers themselves.

So what can we do to help them develop their natural sense of curiosity?

Change the Questions
The Question Formulation Technique is one protocol that supports student questioning. It provides an opportunity to teach students about different kinds of questions, the benefits and drawbacks of different kinds of questions, and how to manipulate questions to match their purpose. The rules of the technique are simple. The teacher provides a prompt, which can be anything EXCEPT a question – and in small groups, students must:
1. Brainstorm as many questions as possible about the prompt
2. Write down every question exactly as it was stated
3. Brainstorm without stopping to answer or evaluate any of the questions
4. Turn all statements into questions

We tried QFT with Ms. Wuebbles’ students using a line graph about the manatee population. Student-generated questions ranged from what is a manatee, to why is there a sudden increase in 2012 and where is the data coming from?

The rules of QFT are simple and the results are powerful. They give students permission to ask questions without fear of judgment. Students are encouraged to ask questions without worrying whether or not they will be able to answer them.

The students in Ms. Wuebbles class started taking ownership of questions as well as their answers. She stated, “Now I often ask my students to look at a graph, equation, definition, etc., and consider the questions that come to mind. Closed questions are answered quickly by their peers or through a Google search. Open questions are debated in a whole or small group setting. Students incorporated connections to other subjects and experiences, too.�

For the full protocol and other related resources, visit: http://rightquestion.org/educators/resources/

Make Meaning

The Making Meaning protocol can help address the low level, direction based questions often asked by students. This text-based protocol involves five minute rounds of discussion on four topics to improve student comprehension and critical thinking:
1. What do you see in the text?
2. What questions does this text raise for you?
3. What is significant about this text?
4. What are the implications of this text for your work?

Applying this protocol to a rubric or assignment description and holding a timed class discussion ensures that students read the information and can consider their questions in advance. Interacting with the information also helps students apply it to the work they have ahead.

Carrie Horton at Vernon Malone in Raleigh recently used the Making Meaning protocol with her freshman English class. Ms. Horton, who also uses Project-Based Learning, said “this protocol really helped my students focus on what information was given to them for the project and what information they still needed to know in order to complete the project.�

Teaching students to ask and answer their own questions encourages them to tap in to their natural sense of curiosity and to become lifelong learners. Ms. Horton further noted, “Using this instead of the traditional process for our PBL project gave students time to think through and process the information. Students reported that they were forced to slow down and really read the information. Having other students point out what they saw in the text helped draw their attention to important information that they may have overlooked when reading it individually.�

For the Making Meaning protocol, visit: http://schoolreforminitiative.org/doc/making_meaning.pdf

Catherine Hart is a Master Coach at NC New Schools/Breakthrough Learning.