Inquiry-based DEI: How Questioning Can Disrupt Defensiveness and Build Belonging

Outline

Time: 10 minutes
Content:
-Community Building
-Overview of the session
-Overview of relevant literature and research related to the importance of teaching students to ask their own questions and the impact on learning
Process:
-A short icebreaker activity where participants introduce themselves to each other
-Lecture and slides presented by presenters

Time: 28 minutes
Content:
-Participants engage in a Question Formulation Technique experience based on a relevant and pressing DEI issue that many people will relate to. The QFT includes question generation, categorization, prioritization, action planning, and reflection.
Process:
-The QFT process is facilitated exactly the same way that a teacher would facilitate in a classroom. Participants work together in small groups on a series of short, targeted questioning and discussion steps. The presenters will facilitate discussions.

Time: 5 minutes
Content:
-Unpacking the QFT process to make visible to participants the steps that they just went through and how they were designed to promote three distinct thinking abilities: divergent, convergent, and metacognition
Process:
-Lecture and slides presented by presenters.

Time: 12 minutes
Content:
-Real student work and examples from both classroom and professional learning settings from around the country. All examples presented will reflect different DEI concepts, including building buy-in for affinity groups on campus and facilitating difficult conversations about race.
Process:
-Presenters will present 2-3 examples of real work from their own lived experiences as well as from teachers around the country.
-Participants will share their thoughts, observations, and conclusions based on the work presented.

Time: 15 minutes
Content:
-Share and reflect
Process:
-Presenters share a couple final slides.
-All participants reflect individually and then as a whole group about what they learned in the session, how they learned it, and how they could see applying it to their own schools and communities.
-Presenters will share take home resources and a plug-and-play lesson plan. Presenters will answer questions and exchange contact information.

Supporting research

The Question Formulation Technique (QFT) was developed by Dan Rothstein, Luz Santana, and The Right Question Institute (a non profit organization). Their book, Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions (Harvard Education Press, 2011) introduced the QFT to the field of education and has become a best seller. The Right Question Institute website (rightquestion.org) hosts thousands of free articles, classroom resources, and instructional videos.

To find recent articles and press, visit: https://rightquestion.org/about/press/

Co-presenter Sarah Westbrook has been published in Social Education, Ebsco, Teaching Channel, and more and has recently co-authored a chapter in The Educator’s Handbook for Teaching with Primary Sources by Scott Waring (Teachers College Press, 2023).

The following is a selected list of scholarly literature and research on the QFT:

Causey, C., & Spencer, A., 2024. Student-generated questions: An exploration of an instructional strategy with young children. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 53, 101608.
Clark, S., Harbaugh, A. G., & Seider, S., 2019. Fostering adolescent curiosity through a question brainstorming intervention. Journal of Adolescence, 75, 98–112.
Cummings, K.M., 2020. A Mixed-Method Case Study Of The Effects Of Question Formulation Technique on Classroom Engagement in a Secondary Earth Science Classroom and Teachers’ Perceptions of This Shift. Theses and Dissertations. Theses and Dissertations. 112.
Fernand, M. T. 2016 Effects of the Question Formulation Technique on secondary students' argument writing achievement scores (Doctoral dissertation, Western Connecticut State University).
Kasivu, G., Mwania, J., Kimatu, J., Kamau, L., Mulwa, J., Kiilu, R., Kithungu, R., Musyoka, M.J. & Migwambo, R. (2024). Reinforcing the 21st century pedagogical skills through the application of the question formulation technique (QFT) in secondary schools in south eastern region of Kenya. International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, 8(3), 827-836.
Kitakaze, N. and Ito, T., 2017. "The Use of the Question Formulation Technique in the Classroom," Journal of Center Teacher Development Education Research, Daito Bunka University, No.2, pp. 67-74.
Mannion, Jessica M., 2019. The effectiveness of the question formulation technique on open-ended, written response questions in mathematics. Theses and Dissertations. 2673. https://rdw.rowan.edu/etd/2673
LeBlanc, H. J., Nepal, K., and Mowry, G. S.,2017. “Stimulating curiosity and the ability to formulate technical questions in an electric circuits course using the question formulation technique (QFT),” in IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), pp. 1–6.
Pelesko, J. and Cirillo, M., 2016. The Question Formulation Technique: A Tool for Teaching Mathematical Modeling.
Spencer, A., Causey, C. B., Ernest, J. M., & Barnes, G. F. (2020). Using Student Generated Questions to Foster Twenty-First Century Learning: International Collaboration in Uganda. Excellence in Education Journal, 9(1), 57-84.
Tiboldo, C. E., 2017. The effect of training in question generation on the development of better questions posed by seventh-grade science students, Montana State University, Montana.
Torres-Garibay, C., Kerby, J., & Minigan, A., 2020. Implementation of the question formulation technique as a teaching strategy in renewable energy engineering education. 2020 ASEE virtual annual conference content access.

Additional related research on questioning for learning, includes:

Bowker, M. H. (2010). Teaching students to ask questions instead of answering them. Thought & Action, 26, 127-134.
Chin, C., & Osborne, J. (2008). Students' questions: a potential resource for teaching and learning science. Studies in science education, 44(1), 1-39.
Ebersbach, M, Feierabend, M, Nazari, KBB (2020). Comparing the effects of generating questions, testing, and restudying on students' long‐term recall in university learning. Appl Cognit Psychol, 34: 724– 736.
Hinson, G., Rogers, D., Brown, S., & Bauman, A. (2004). Music matters: Asking questions, fostering agency, and building community in arts-based educational programming. Journal of Thought, 39(4), 15-34.
Hunkins, Francis, (1987) Chapter. 8 Students as Key Questioners, in Wilen, W.W. 1987 Questions, Questioning Techniques and Effective Teaching, Washington D.C. Education Association. P. 154-173.
King, A. (2007). Beyond Literal Comprehension: A Strategy to Promote Deep Understanding of Text, Reading Comprehension Strategies: Theories, Interventions, and Technologies edited by Danielle S. McNamara, Routledge, 267-290.
Pedrosa-de-Jesus, H. & De Souza, F. & Watts, D.(2005). Organising the chemistry of question‐based learning: A case study. Research in Science & Technological Education. 23. 179-193.
Song, D. (2016). Student-generated questioning and quality questions: A literature review. Research Journal of Educational Studies and Review, 2, 58–70.