Brainstorming

Facilitating Critical Thinking

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© 2009 John Martin.R, All rights reserved The Human Creative Minds
Objectives

 Learn how to raise the bar for ALL learners through effective
questioning.
 Examine the relationship between the level of teacher
questions and the ability of students to analyze, interpret,
and evaluate information.
 Review the research on the role of teacher questions in
teaching and learning.
 Explore questioning strategies that not only lead to a greater
understanding of the content, but also impact students’
critical thinking skills.

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 Questioning

 “The important thing is not to stop questioning.”

-A.Einstein

 “Students should feel proud that they have a

question rather than pleased that they have the
answer.” -Janice Szabos
 “Problem-finding will have equal importance with
problem-solving. Student questioning is the tool
that opens the “window” for effective, meaningful
learning.” -Garnet Miller

4-5 Johnson, N. Active Questioning, 1995.

 Assumptions

 Inquisitiveness and the ability to think are essential for

functioning in the present and fast-developing information
society.
 In the upcoming decades human intelligences, imagination, and
intuition will be far more important than the machine.
 Educators should create within educational arenas smart
environments that enable students to work on their intelligence
through reflecting on their mental capacities, their questions.
 Thinking and effective inquiry are paramount skills.

6-7 Hunkins, Teaching Thinking Through Effective Questioning, 1995.

Teacher Questioning

Why do teachers ask questions?

– Assess student performance
– Maintain student engagement
– Lead students to learning moments?
– Keep the Teacher’s focus
– Enable the teacher to build on student
answers and provide immediate feedback

Research Says …
i) On the average, during classroom “recitation”, approximately 60 percent of the
questions asked are lower cognitive questions, 20 percent are higher cognitive
questions, and 20 percent are procedural.
ii) Students whom teachers perceive as slow or poor learners are asked fewer
higher cognitive questions than students perceived as more capable learners.

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“I am not who I think I am. I am not who you think I am.
I am who I think you think I am.”
“Do not focus on perceived inadequacy, but instead focus on strengths
and people will ascend.”
“Learn your strengths from what people say to you.”
“When praising others, be specific in the praise, be sincere in how the
praise is delivered, and state it with a tone of high expectations”.
“I’ll try to give you what you expect from me …
Praise my strengths, expect it from me and watch me grow.”
- Mike Kneale, October 2002

Cotton, K. Classroom Questioning. Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory,

6 2001.
Research Says …
 Teaching students to draw inferences and giving them practice in doing so result in
higher cognitive responses and greater learning gains.
 For older students, increases in the use of higher cognitive questions are positively
related to increases in:
– On-task behavior
– Length of student responses
– The number of relevant contributions volunteered by students
– The number of student-to-student interactions
– Student use of complete sentences
– Speculative thinking on the part of students
– Relevant questions posed by students
 Wait Time
– The average wait-time teachers allow after posing a question is one second or less.
– Students whom teachers perceive as slow or poor learners are given less wait-time
than those teachers view as more capable.
– Increase in wait-time over three seconds has a positive effect on the number of
higher cognitive questions asked by teachers.

Cotton, K. Classroom Questioning. Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory,

7 2001.
Seven Principles

1. Students do not have the right not to learn.

2. Underachieving students are mostly undertrained, not
underbrained; they are dormant, not dead!
3. Questioning must be intensive not just occasional.
4. The attempt should be to follow a Question-Response-Question
(Q-R-Q) pattern when questioning students.
5. Questioning must be kept positive overall.
6. Random guess-making or trial and error behavior during
questioning should be discouraged.
7. The goal is to reduce “I don’t know” responses and attitudes.

Hannel, G.I., and Hannel, L. (2005). Highly Effective Questioning: How and
8 Why To Ask Ques
Asking Questions

 Self-Reflection
 Engaging Students
 Framing Questions
 Fat and Skinny Questions

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 What is Critical Thinking?

Take a moment to record your definition.

Share it with someone.

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© 2009 John Martin.R, All rights reserved The Human Creative Minds
Thinking is ...

Connecting Generating Relating Associating

Arguing Analyzing Composing Sequencing
Convincing Capitulating Retracting Suggesting
Sorting Intuiting Projecting Suspending
Imagining Predicting Questioning Wondering
Comparing Contrasting Reconciling Rejecting
Hazarding Inventing Proving Improving
Modifying Extending Hypothesizing Rehearsing
Including Accommodating Refining Testing
Clarifying Disrupting Harmonizing Assimilating
Reflecting Cooperating Speculating Empathizing
Judging Synchronizing Contradicting Compromising

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Bloom’s Taxonomy

 “Each of Bloom’s cognitive categories includes a list of a variety of

thinking skills and indicates the kind of behavior students are to
perform as the objectives or goals of specific learning tasks.”
– Knowledge: Define, recognize, recall, identify, label, understand,
examine, show, collect.
 Comprehension: Translate, interpret, explain, describe,
summarize, extrapolate.
 Application: Apply, solve, experiment, show, predict.
 Analysis: Connect, relate, differentiate, classify, arrange, check,
group, distinguish, organize, categorize, detect, compare, infer
 Synthesis: Produce, propose, design, plan, combine, formulate,
compose, hypothesize, construct.
 Evaluation: Appraise, judge, criticize, decide

At what level do I assess my students? 12

 Low Level Thinking Questions

 Who?
 What?
 Where?
 When?
 How?
 Why?

32-36 Johnson, N. Active Questioning, 1995. 13

High Level Thinking Questions

 What are all the ways?

 What if ?
 How is ________ different from _______?
 What is your point of view about______?
 How come _______________?
 How do you feel about ________?

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Active Questioning Formats

 Question Journal  The Answer is …

 Question Web  Questioning Notebook or Journal
 Mind branching
 A Question to Tickle Your Funny Bone
 Learning Log Using Questions
 Before and After
 Pictures! Pictures!
 A Grab of Questions WHAT IF?
 Dear Kid Question
 A Wheel of Questions
 Question Board
 Spinning Questions
 Question Calendar

Lesson:

“Hurricanes From a Social Studies Perspective”

Reflections:

How will I use questioning to enhance the teaching of _________?

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 Effective Brainstorming

“The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas.”

— Linus Pauling

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© 2009 John Martin.R, All rights reserved The Human Creative Minds
Tips for better Brainstorming

• Sharpen the Focus

• Playful Rules
• Number Your Ideas
• Build and Jump
• “The Space Remembers”
• Stretch your Mental Muscles
• Get Physical

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 Thank You

The HuMan Creative Minds

Phone : 00968 97047403 email : jmartin.in@gmail.com

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© 2009 John Martin.R, All rights reserved The Human Creative Minds