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Designing thought-provoking questions

Thought-provoking questions need to be specially designed in order to stimulate creative, curious, and
challenging thinking that occurs in the forebrain. The questions have more than one possible answer, so
memory is not as important as independent thinking.

First you need to have a definition of the 3Cs – then you can design different multi answer questions
that stimulate each. Here are definitions and some sample questions you can use in the classroom to
develop student mindsets needed for the 3Cs.

Creative thinking – the ability to break away from dominant patterns stored in the brain in order to
think of unusual solutions.

Unusual alternatives:  How many unusual uses can you think of for a newspaper?

Unusual similarities: In how many ways is an elephant the same as a chair?

Unusual consequences: What if there were no more birds in the world?

Unusual reversals: What can’t you see?

Unusual images: What does this line drawing remind you of?

Unusual designs: What can you combine, reverse, eliminate, add to, use alternatives … in order to make
a new breakfast cereal?

These multi answer questions stimulate the thinking areas of the forebrain. Creative thinking is helped
with a risk taking, open minded, flexible, imaginative mindset which helps the thinker break away.

Curious thinking – the ability to think of reasons for explaining why something has the features that it
has.

Shape: Why are coins round?

Colour: Why are stop lights red? Why are road signs white on green?

Parts: Why does a dog have four legs and not two or six?

Material: Why are bottles made of glass?

Size: Why do turtles lay so many eggs and birds only a few?

These multi answer questions stimulate the thinking areas of the forebrain. Curious thinking is helped
with an analytic, questioning, reason seeking mindset.

Challenging or critical thinking – the ability to judge statements using relevant criteria or reasons.

Fact/opinion: Why isn’t it a fact that dogs make better pets than cats?

Believable/unbelievable: Why would or wouldn’t you believe a claim made by someone who said they
saw a flying saucer last night?

Relevant/irrelevant: What are some important or relevant things to tell people who are helping you to
find your lost dog?
Another point of view: What are some good and bad things about keeping animals in zoos?

Making conclusions: What can and can’t you conclude if you see a man running quickly out of a shop?

Biased/unbiased information: Is this advert biased or not?

Critical thinking is helped with an analytic, questioning, cautious, judgmental mindset.

Testing 3C thinking

Questions based on all of the examples above can be used in designing pencil and paper tests. They can
also be embedded in the dialogue of interactive, cartoon stories.

In my own work, cartoon tests of 3C thinking have been designed and used with early childhood children
in Singapore. Teachers use them on a 1:1 basis. They read instructions on each cartoon test item and
then record the number of acceptable answers. These tests were not suitable for use with young,
frightened students.

The best indicator of improvement with 3C thinking in young early childhood is parent feedback on
observed differences in student behaviour at home. For example:

 Do your children ask more ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions at home?

 Do your children regularly use terms such as ‘opinion’, ‘evidence’, ‘relevance’, and ‘bias’?

 Do your children suggest ideas for solving small, practical problems?

 Do your children ask why things have the appearance that they have?

Middle years tests of 3C thinking include multiple choice questions. The interactive cartoon stories have
3C questions embedded in their dialogue and scores can be calculated. Tests of 3C thinking, including
those with multiple choice questions, have also been designed for older students and adults.

Research using such tests with more than 170 Grade 7-9 students in South Australia, found that
students selected for ‘gifted classes’ do no better than their peers (Langrehr, 2006). This suggests they
have been selected on their ability to excel at correct answer, or ‘3R thinking’.

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