Higher Level Questioning
Description
What Is It?
Higher-level thinking, elicited by skilled inquiry, should be both teacher- and student-driven. Teachers pose questions and guide students into deeper levels of thought. Students use questioning processes to probe the meanings of texts, solve problems, or design investigations. Ultimately, higher-level thinking is revealed through questioning, analyzing, and constructing of knowledge and understanding.
Why Use It?
Using these resources, educators will be able to:
Use effective questioning techniques in the classroom to promote students’ critical thinking or higher order thinking skills.
Create a classroom culture that nurtures thinking and inquiry.
Engage students in using Costa’s Levels of Thinking to think more deeply and broadly.
Teach students to identify and employ the strategies and skills of successful learners.
Quick Tips
While there are common elements of the strategy that should be consistent across all levels and content areas, educators can personalize higher-level thinking by:
Creating an overarching, higher-level question specific to the unit of learning
Utilizing structures for inquiry (Collaborative Study Groups, Philosophical Chairs, Socratic Seminar) related to the content to give students practice with asking their own higher level questions and holding discussion around them.
Be sure to point out how much more interesting the conversation is when higher-level questions are used!
Did you know?
That asking student's higher level questions pushes their thinking, but teaching and facilitating the use of higher level questioning by the students raises the rigor even more.