 My name is Kathy McGuigan from the Library of Congress, and I want to welcome you to their special program today. This is a professional development educator webinar from the Library of Congress. And today we are looking at an introduction to the question formulation technique for primary source learning. So without further ado, I will hand things over to our first speaker, Sarah Westbrook. Hi everyone. I'm the Director of Professional Learning at the Wright Question Institute, but my background is teaching high school English in the Boston area. And now I work with educators around the country to design professional learning and also to learn from what they're doing in their classrooms and try to share back out with all of you some of their creativity and the best practices that they've hit on. Hi everyone. My name is Andrew Minigan. As Sarah mentioned, I work at the Wright Question Institute. I currently lead some NSF-funded research projects on exploring how to teach researchers how to ask better, more transformative research questions, thinking and learning with researchers all around the country as well. Okay. So let's spend a little bit of time before we get down to work, thinking about why this work is so important for students. Thank you, Sarah. So we like to share a little bit about the origins of our work, how the work of the Wright Question Institute started. The work of the Wright Question Institute didn't start in a think tank or did it start in the academy. Rather, the work of the Wright Question Institute began in Lawrence, Massachusetts, a low-income city, former factor of textile city just outside of Boston, and it was parents whose children were in the Dropout Prevention Program who were the original source of inspiration and they needed a barrier to their participating in their children's education, which was we don't go to the school because we don't even know what to ask. So these parents working with RQI co-founders and co-directors Dan Robson, Luz Santana, as well as the late great Agnes Bain who named this initial barrier. And Dan, Luz and Agnes did what maybe anyone would have done. They came up with lists of questions for these parents to use and ask at parent teacher meetings. And they did that about one or two thousand times before they realized what they were doing was cultivating a dependency on them for the questions. What the parents really needed was the opportunity for themselves to learn and hone this really fundamental skill for thinking, learning and for advocating. Academics and thought leaders also agree. David Hackett Fisher, professor emeritus at Brandeis University, believes that there can be no thinking without questioning, no purposeful study of the past nor any serious planning for the future. Laura Bush, an educator herself as well as a former First Lady, believes that libraries allow children to ask questions about the world and find the answers. And the wonderful thing is that once the child learns to use a library, the doors to learning are always open. This is a wonderfully pithy book written by a former chairman of the Department of Biology at Columbia University. It's a book on ignorance. Stuart Feierstein also wrote a book on failure. He teaches courses on ignorance and failure at Columbia University, which puts those Ivy League students in quite the predicament of whether they want to excel at failure or not. But I digress. He wrote this book on how he was teaching med students at Columbia and they were coming into class believing all they needed to know was what was in the textbook. What Stuart shares with the students is, no, that's all we know now. What we don't know is much greater. And his job as a professor is to teach them how to navigate this unknown. And he concludes his book with this thought, we must teach students how to think in questions, in other words, how to manage their ignorance. College presidents agree. Peter Salovey, president of Yale University, and a speech to incoming students this past fall offers. We are here to ask questions, questions about one another and about the world around us. We are at Yale to nurture a culture of curiosity. I love that idea of an entire campus of empathetic question asking students and learners. Nancy Cantor in the New York Times interview at the term of the 21st century believes that the best we can do for students is have them ask the right questions. And yet, if you look at the research, only about 27% of college graduates believe that they've actually learned how to ask their own questions during their time in undergrad. And the problem begins long before that. Of course, for those of you with young children at home, you are familiar with some of these statistics. You might actually think they're on the conservative side. Researchers found young children ask about 10,000 questions per year before they begin formal schooling, only about half of which are why, why, why. So the point is they are agents of curiosity. And yet, by the time they're adolescents, who's asking questions in the classroom? Researchers found that educators are asked about two questions per minute. And students only about two questions per hour. And not only are there disparities and differences between the audience questions, educators are asking compared to students. The researchers also found that higher achieving students ask more questions than moderate and lower achieving students and students from higher income backgrounds and families ask more questions than students from moderate and lower income families. So disparities and differences between educators and students, but also between different students as well. It's not for lack of trying or wanting a teacher's report that it feels like pulling teeth to get students to ask questions. And researchers found that they only asked about 150 amount of questions that they would deem desirable, that they want them to be asking that many questions. So how can we move from this palpable, horrible feeling of pulling teeth to the feeling of excitement that comes with teaching students how to become more curious questions and asking learners? Well, we have to move from this being the exception. This is a seminal study in question formulation. Of course, there's examining educators' questions. And it found that there was only one classroom out of 100 that was observed where students were asking questions. And the result was that the lesson developed an impetus born of real interest. So over 100 years ago, this researcher found that when students are asking questions, there's engagement, there is interest. So we have to move from that being one out of 100 to it being 100 out of 100 classrooms. And that's what we've been doing in our work for the past about nine years with the publication of Make Just One Change, Teach Students How to Ask Their Own Questions. Sarah, next slide. Moving into the norm, where now there are over 1 million classrooms where students are learning how to ask their own questions, drive their own learning, it's really been a field-driven movement where educators are taking this simple strategy and developing and advancing in really ingenious, creative ways. So what happens when students begin to learn how to ask their own questions? John Hattie and his famed meta-analysis found that student formulation of their own questions is one of the most effective metacognitive strategies. And that pre-lesson self-questioning actually improved students' rate of learning by nearly 50%. What do students have to say? Well, in one summer remedial class in Boston, Massachusetts, a student found that after they learned how to ask questions, the way it made me feel was smart, because I was asking good questions and giving good answers. Now, smart might not be a word that students typically use to describe themselves, but after he asked questions, he learned the power of his being able to drive his own learning. And the student at Brandeis University, the QFT question formulation technique really teaches a way of thinking, so students can be thinking critically every time they read that piece of information literacy, trying to connect the concepts and deciding whether to take back an information at face value or to dig a little deeper. So that is enough for me. Sarah is about to put you to work in an experience in the QFT. OK, hi, everyone. So thank you so much, Andrew. We are about to start some collaborative work together. And I warned you that you're going to need either a piece of paper or another device somewhere that you can use to write down some questions and to do a little bit of work. So I'll give you a second right now. Just get those things in front of you. And we're going to do some work today on the problem that Andrew was just naming for us. So the question formulation technique in a nutshell, the process that you're about to go through, is that individuals learn to produce their own questions, improve their questions, strategize on how to use them, and then reflect on what they've learned and how they've learned it. There are four rules for this process. There is ask as many questions as you can. Do not stop to answer, judge, or discuss. Write down every question exactly as stated, or in this case, exactly as it first comes to mind. And then change any statements into questions. So if a statement pops into your head, just go ahead and try to formulate it as a question. And try not to judge yourself as you're asking questions. So I just want to give you a few seconds right now. Think for yourself, what would be difficult for you in following these four rules? So just think about it. Andrew, what do you normally hear people say is difficult? I find that people often believe it's going to be difficult not to judge themselves when it's collaborative, judge themselves and others. And that that's really a big shift in their behavior. And this rule helps them hold themselves accountable for that. It is very difficult for me not to judge myself. So I relate. OK, so in a minute, you're going to be asking questions about a topic that I'm going to give you. You're following the rules. You're now all officially deputized in the rules. And so you have to do your best, hold yourself to them, and then please number your questions. And we'll talk about that later. All right, so I'm going to set a timer. Let's see what we can do in about three minutes. I'll put the topic up on the screen. You're going to ask as many questions as you can on your own paper. So you're just asking questions about the statement on your screen. Some students are not asking questions about primary sources. I'll give you a time check. Just ask as many questions as you can on your own paper starting now. So get down your last couple words, last couple thoughts, and I'm moving us into the next phase of the question formulation technique process. So there are a lot of ways that you can define questions. For our purposes, there are just two categories. Close-ended questions, which are questions that can be answered with a yes, no, or a one word answer. Open-ended questions are questions that require more explanation. So I'd like us to take a look at your own list of questions. And let's see. I'm going to see if we can do it in under a minute. I think we can. I'd like you to try to identify your questions as either a C for close-ended or an O for open-ended. So let's take about 30 seconds right now. See if you can identify your questions as close or open-ended. We're going to move on. So there are some advantages and disadvantages to the types of questions that you asked. What do you see as advantages of close-ended questions? I see easier to respond, quick to assess. Close-ended questions offer immediate response, can help scaffolding, fast, solidify understanding, necessary facts, simple clarifying, typically facts. More participation, cover basic information, students feel successful, can build off close-ended questions, narrowing focus, easy for quiet students. Access point to deeper levels of inquiry. Let's look at some disadvantages now. So the disadvantages you see of close-ended questions. I see nothing to discuss. Limited access points, too simple, too narrow, no deeper thought, too simplistic often, not thought-provoking, further research limited, don't encompass the reality of a student's situation, limit the conversation, closes off divergent thinking, not engaging, don't get easy answers. So if we shift to thinking about open-ended questions, the advantages of open-ended questions. Thought-provoking leads to discovery, hooks students, engages the learner, details, multiple ideas and discussion takes longer to answer. Opportunities, creative thinking. So there's lots of advantages. All right, what about the disadvantages? Disadvantages of open-ended questions. I see time consuming can get off track or off topic, time, no easy answers, kids can get lost. Going down the rabbit hole forever can be confusing, can be open to misinterpretation, frustrated, students space out when others talk, harder for some learners, controversial, can confuse the point of students, overwhelming for ELL, some students may simply skip them, hand constraints. There are advantages and disadvantages to both types of questions and both close-ended and open-ended questions can be good and right depending on what the context and the situation is. So close-ended questions can be really strategic questions when you're trying to build up to an idea or drill down into an idea or hold someone accountable. So because both types of questions have advantages and disadvantages, I'd like to give us an opportunity in this next step to think about changing one or two of your questions strategically. So I'm gonna ask you to take a close-ended question and change it to make it an open-ended question and then take one open-ended question and change it into a close-ended question and you'll add those questions as new questions at the bottom of your list. So if you had 10 questions, you'll now have 12. The other thing I'd like to invite you to do is think about changing questions strategically. So is there a question that you think might be more effective as a close-ended question? Is there a question you wish you'd asked in a more open way? So don't change the questions that are easiest to change. So I'm gonna give us one minute to accomplish this and your time starts now. Okay, so let's move on to the next step of the process. Try to get down those last couple words or phrases. So we've produced questions, we've thought about open and closed, we've transformed the language of a few questions. I'm asking you now to prioritize. Think about the Q-focus that we actually looked at, which was the statement some students are not asking questions about primary sources. So I want you to prioritize with that Q-focus or that prompt in mind. So think about why you chose those questions. I'm gonna give you a minute. You're thinking about the three questions that you are most interested to discuss and think about further. You're thinking about the original Q-focus. Some students are not asking questions about primary sources. And then you're gonna think through your rationale why you chose those. So let's take one minute, your time starts now. All right, hopefully you have three questions or at least a couple of questions. So we're gonna move on. Maybe Andrew can help me read some of these out. It's really fantastic to see all of these questions. Yeah, so how do I have the students use the questions they're creating? Why aren't they asking questions? What primary sources do students use? What kind of technology might be useful to help those kids who are to speak up in front of the whole class? How do we encourage active interest? Do students feel they're in a safe space? So we're moving into the next step here. And I'd like you to think about your, whatever you said your three priority questions were. So to move from having that question and sitting with that question into taking some action on it. How would you go about doing that? What are a couple ideas you have for the information you might need to know to answer one of your priority questions or some of the tasks or actions that you would take in order to get that information? So for now, I'd like everybody just to think about a priority question or two that you had and a couple ideas for how you might go about getting information or taking action on that question. I'm gonna give us a minute and a half. I'd like us to just take a minute and reflect. What did you learn and how did you learn it? So there's a structure process to teaching how to ask questions. It doesn't quote, just happen. I learned how to generate questions quickly and prioritize them. We'll need to give students time to think. This is not something they are used to doing. I've learned three minutes feels like a long time. Reflection and group collaboration prompt from the instructor. It's hard not to judge your questions. Thank you. The order of which questions were most important to me was very helpful. Students can learn to be strategic about asking questions. Yes, more in-depth question, learn that taking time to think of the answers. Give the students time to think of the answers. Chunking, student buy it. Thank you so much for all of your reflections and all of your participation. One thing I think is really important is that we didn't tell you you must ask 10 questions, for instance. And the reason for that is that when you say 10 questions, but the really important priority question is 11 or 12, you may never get there. And I also think that some students might not get to 10 questions the first time they try questioning because it is challenging. You're asking them to do school in a way that's very different from the way they might be used to. So it's really interesting to think intentionally about how you're planning and structuring this questioning time. So we're gonna share briefly how this process works and the types of thinking that you're doing. Thank you, Sarah. And we're gonna move pretty quickly here, sharing you a little bit about how and why the strategy works. So this is a slide that shows the QFT. It's so simple. It fits on one slide. And here you can review again the elements of the strategy and the different steps that Sarah just facilitated for you all. I do think it's worth noting there, it would be nice if we only needed the very first rule, ask as many questions as you can. But we all know that that's not quite enough to give every student the opportunity in the space to ask. So the rest of the four rules really protect the safety of the process. And so while you were going through those different steps, you were developing three discrete thinking abilities with one process. Thinking ability is really powerful on their own but when developed in concert they're even more robust and powerful. So as you were asking as many questions as you could without stopping to edit yourself, you were thinking divergently. You were thinking in many different directions as you let those questions flow. This is a thinking ability often associated with creativity. Then at different points in the process you were thinking more convergently, strategically. You were thinking about how it might be advantageous to reword a question to better elicit the types of information you would like to seek. You were asked to prioritize different questions and you were also asked to develop an action plan, something that you could move on and move from thinking into action. So you were moving from that thinking into strategy. And throughout the entire process you were thinking metacognitive. So you were thinking about your thinking. You were asked to reflect on what might be challenging about following the different rules. You were asked to think about the advantages and disadvantages of different types of questions. Your rationale and you were also asked to reflect on the process at the close. So throughout the entire process you were thinking metacognitively. Why is the skill of question formulation so important right now? There's just a couple last things that Andrew and I want to leave you with. The first is that we're living in the age of Google and those of us who work in libraries as our livelihood probably know this better than most of us. We're in an age where students don't necessarily need help getting to information. They really need help sifting through information critically and really being more thoughtful and interrogating the information that they're finding. So this is a great book I would recommend and Clive Thompson concludes by saying how should you respond when you get powerful new tools for finding answers? Think of harder questions. I think that's really relevant when you're thinking about just the millions of wonderful things that are housed at the Library of Congress and the important piece that building those skills has to play when you're in this age of Google. There's another reason why we think questioning is more important than ever before and that's because it has a real connection to democracy and to building a more informed citizenship. So I want to just point out to you the woman in the center of this image is Bernice, I'm sorry, this is Bernice Robinson and the woman in the center is Septima Clark and Septima Clark founded the citizenship schools which was to teach African-American adults basic literacy skills, not just for not being cheated out of housing but also to protect their right to vote. And so one of the things that she said and I think Septima Clark is one of the great American educators and she doesn't get enough recognition. One of the things that she said that we love is that we must be taught to study rather than to believe and to inquire rather than to affirm. So the idea that questioning is a lifelong self-advocacy skill, it helps you participate in decision-making on every level from your community to your state to your country to the institutions around you, your schools, legal services, social services and questioning is such an important part of that and I think we all now more than ever really need to make sure that we're investing in that curiosity and that skill for our students and whatever their next steps might be.