Staff meeting 19/04/10

Questioning skills
De Bono’s Thinking Hats
PCQ
Split Y-Chart
C&S
Fishbone diagram
Open and closed questions

A closed question is one in which there are a

limited number of acceptable answers, most
of which will usually be anticipated by the
instructor.

An open question is one is which there are
many acceptable answers, most of which will
not be anticipated by the teacher.

Higher-order questions tend to be open and
encourage divergent thinking:
Checklist for questioning

Do I make certain that all students develop a deep understanding of key knowledge by
emphasizing higher-order questioning?

Do I encourage discussion in my classroom by using open-ended questions?

Do I decide on the goals or purposes of my questions?

Do I choose important--rather than trivial--material to emphasize students' in-depth exploration
of essential/key questions?

Do I avoid "yes" and "no" questions?

Do I use "probe" questions to encourage students to elaborate and support assertions and claims?

Do I ensure that students clearly understand my questions--and avoid a "guessing game?"

Do I avoid questions that "contain the answer"?

Do I anticipate students' responses to my questions, yet allow for divergent thinking and original
responses?

Do I use purposeful strategies for helping students deal with incorrect responses?

Do I make effective use of Wait Time?

Do I vary my question structures?
Questioning for Quality
Thinking

Recalling - Who, what, when, where, how _______?

Comparing

Classifying

Ordering

Identifying Relationships and Patterns

Representing

Identifying Main Ideas

Inferring

Predicting

Elaborating

Summarizing

Establishing Criteria

Verifying
 PROMOTING HIGHER ORDER
THINKING SKILLS

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Evaluation - Judging the outcome HO

Synthesis - Putting together HO

Analysis - Taking apart HO

Application - Making use of knowledge HO

Comprehension - Confirming or understanding
LO

Knowledge - Gathering Information LO
Forrest Hill’s Inquiry Model

The I’s on Learning

Reflection in the centre
Inquiry planning format

Use this or develop your own

Make it simple

Keep in a safe place throughout the inquiry
process for constant referral

Lower order questions required to help
search for answers to higher order questions
Kelston Intermediate Inquiry
rubric and reflection sheet

Aligned to the KI inquiry steps

Student highlights using one colour

Teacher highlights using another colour

Keep in portfolios as a record for the next
inquiry to compare improvement

Available in teacher share if students want to
use as part of e-portfolio and highlight

Evaluation step by step as each inquiry step
completed
 BLUE HAT THINKING

The Big Picture

•all participants discuss the thinking process.
• facilitator will generally wear the blue hat and each
member of the team will put it on from time to time to
think about directing their work together.
•used at the start and end of each thinking session, to set
objectives, to define the route to take to get to them, to
evaluate where the group has got to and where the
thinking process is going.
•group remains focused and improves chances of achieving
objectives.
•an organization of thinking. What have we done so far?
What can we do next?
BLACK HAT THINKING

identify barriers, hazards, risks and other

negative connotations.

critical thinking, looking for problems and
mismatches.

usually natural for people to use- the issues
with it are that people will tend to use it when
it is not requested and when it is not
appropriate, thus stopping the flow of others.
YELLOW HAT THINKING

identify benefits associated with an idea or issue.

opposite of black hat thinking

looks for the reasons in favour of something- still
a matter of judgment - it is an analytical process

outputs may be statements of the benefits that
could be created with a given idea, or positive
statements about the likelihood of achieving it,
or identifying the key supports available that will
benefit this course of action.
RED HAT THINKING

State feelings, exercising gut instincts.

Can be a method for harvesting ideas - it is not a question
of recording statements, but rather getting everyone to
identify their top two or three choices from a list of ideas

can use post-it notes to allow a quick system of voting, and
creates a clear visual cue that creates rapid if incomplete
agreement around an issue.

Alternatively it may be used to state ones gut reaction or
feelings on an issue under discussion - this is more common
when using the hats to review personal progress or deal
with issues where there is high emotional content that is
relevant to discussion.
WHITE HAT THINKING

make statements of fact

Can occur immediately after an initial blue
hat

Presenting details and the background to the
purpose of the thinking session

Key information presented and discussed.

Key absence of information (i.e. information
needs) can also be identified at this point.
GREEN HAT THINKING

thinking new thoughts.

provocative and thinking for the sake of
identifying new possibilities. Things are said
for the sake of seeing what they might mean,
rather than to form a judgement.

covers the full spectrum of creativity and can
take many forms
Using the six thinking hats

Last term we had student-

led conferences at our
school.

Use the 6 thinking hats to explore
this statement in your group.

Give one person the blue hat role.

Feedback sheets to hand in.
PCQ –Pros, Cons, Questions

Revise by using the following statement in

your group:

Schools should be open for only 4 days a

week.
 Split Y-chart

Revise by using this statement:

Mr Dudley and his academy should plant

flowering shrubs all around our school.

Looks like, feels like, sounds like.........

Split into + and - sections
S.W.O.T. analysis

In pairs complete a SWOT analysis and hand

in as a reflection on our TOD

H:\Thinking\swot_template.doc
Consequences & Sequel

Immediate effects: today/tomorrow

Short term effects: 1 month

Medium term effects: 1 year

Long term effects: 5-20 years

Discuss using C & S:

Read every day to your students.
Fishbone diagram

Great to brainstorm a topic

Categorises

Explores different aspects of a topic

Generates lists

Focuses on details

Organises in a systematic way

Topic: Kelston Intermediate (my
environment)

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Questions? Comments?