Question Formulation Technique

Question Formulation Technique

The Question Formulation Technique (Santana & Rothstein, 2018) outlines four steps for students to generate, refine, and select useful questions. Students should work together in small groups of 3-5.

Before the QFT

Before you begin, identify a stimulus that is relevant to the learning focus. The stimulus could be a phrase, an image, a video, a song, a demonstration, etc; almost anything but a question. Present the stimulus to students. Then, guide students through these steps:

1. Examine stimulus.
2. Brainstorm questions. There are four rules to this:
   • Ask as many questions as you can.
   • Do not stop to discuss, judge, or answer any questions.
   • Write down every question exactly as it is stated.
   • Change any statement into a question.
3. Improve questions. Categorise questions as open and closed. Add more questions by turning closed questions into open questions, and open questions into closed questions.
4. Prioritise questions. This may be according to importance, or the way to source the answers.

• What questions are most important? What questions can be investigated? What questions will help you solve a problem? Possible solution: Observation (direct observation or classification often done immediately), Research (identifying the who or when questions), Action (needing to do a fair test), Pattern seeking (comparing research or experimental results).

During the QFT

• Monitor and facilitate group work. Clarify instructions as necessary. Do not be pulled into discussions about the stimulus, and do not answer any of the questions generated. Do not provide examples of questions.
• Validate students’ contributions. “Thank you” is a neutral response to contributions. Giving feedback to questions in the moment will affect the quality and quantity of questions and is undesirable.
• Allow groups to work at their own pace. Some groups may generate five questions and others may generate 15 in the same timeframe. Encouraging competition or insisting on a particular number of questions from each group can be counterproductive and reduce the quality and variety of questions. If a group gets stuck, remind them of the stimulus. Prompt them to think about what they would like to know about it.

This process encourages students to develop their own questions related to the topic which is the driver of the inquiry process.

Discuss with colleagues

You will need a variety of stress balls, gloves, large trays (able to contain liquid), a scalpel or sharp knife, scissors, post-it notes, pen.

Consider what you know about stress balls. Write all your ideas as a list or concept map.

Put on the gloves and place your stress ball in the tray. Use the scalpel to make a small slit in the side of the stress ball. Use the scissors to cut open the stress ball. Remove the filling of the stress ball into the tray. Spend about 5 minutes exploring the contents of the stress ball.

Engagement

Did you enjoy this activity?

Did you become more interested in stress balls?

What scientific knowledge/words did you use during this activity?

Asking questions

Now you have experienced the stimulus, brainstorm as many questions as you can about stress balls and what you would like to know. Write each question on a different post-it note. The challenge is you can only use the following question stems (once each) from the list below.

Why…? What…? Where…? Which…? Who…? What if…? How does…? Why…? Will…? Should…? Could…? Would…?

Analysing questions

Did you change any of the questions as you were asking them?

Which question stems did you find most difficult to use?

How did you approach asking the questions? Did you start with the question stems, or modify your question to suit a particular question stem?

How might you use this technique to encourage students to ask a greater variety of questions?

Classifying questions

Break your questions into four groups.

Observation questions: direct observation or classification is often done immediately.

Research questions: identifying the who or when questions.

Action questions: needing to do a fair test.

Pattern-seeking questions: comparing research or experimental results.

• How did this approach change the way you thought about questions?
• Are there any types of questions that you did not ask?
• How does this approach help you to gather answers to the questions?
• Were there any questions that were difficult to classify? Could you change these questions to make it easier?

References:

Skamp, K., & Preston, C. (2021). Teaching primary science constructively (7th ed.). Cengage Learning Australia.

‌Santana, L. & Rothstein, D. (2018). The Question Formulation Technique. Retrieved from http://rightquestion.org/. Massachusetts: The Right Question Institute.