Asking good questions are critically important to many components of the Diploma Programme. Any good essay or internal assessment must begin with a strong, engaging question that will drive research and analysis towards the final product. A question is necessary in order to evaluate the evidence in support of a conclusion to the question. But coming up with questions can be hard. The key to developing a really good question is to generate as large volume of questions. Something happens when your brain starts firing, and you can't count on hitting on the perfect question, or even an effective one, straight from the start. Once you get into a rhythm, and perhaps after you've heard a few questions from your classmates, you will start to uncover some really intriguing questions worthy of time and effort spent uncovering some truths about it.
TOK Question Frames
The following is a list of TOK-ready question frames that can be built upon when generating questions through the Question Formulation Technique.
To what extent ...
Under what circumstances ...
At what point ...
On what basis ...
In what ways ...
(A statement) How do we know that?
(A statement) What evidence supports that?
(A statement) Is the knowledge debatable? How?
Question Formulation Technique
The Question Formulation Technique should begin with something that inspires your questions, called the Question Focus. This can be a conceptual relationship, a subject- or topic-specific statement, an image or video or presentation, or an assessment prompt.
Review the Rules for Producing Questions
Ask as many questions as you can
Do not stop to discuss, judge or answer the questions
Write down every question exactly as it is stated
Change any statement into a question
Produce Your Questions
Be aware of the Question Focus - the major topic that will elicit or inspire the questions you ask
List and number your questions
Categorize Your Questions
Closed-ended questions – they can be answered with “yes” or “no” or with one word.
Open-ended questions – they require an explanation and cannot be answered with yes” or “no” or with one word.
a) Review your list of questions and mark the open-ended questions with an O and the closed-ended questions with a C.
b) Name advantages and disadvantages of asking closed-ended questions:
Advantages
Disadvantages
Name advantages and disadvantages of asking open-ended questions:
Advantages
Disadvantages
c) Change one closed-ended question into an open-ended, and change one open-ended question into a closed-ended one.
Prioritize Your Questions
Choose the three most important questions from your list. Mark them with an “X.”
Choose three questions that…
...most interest you.
...you consider to be the most important.
...will best help you design your research project
...will best help you design your experiment
...will best help you solve a problem
...you want/need to answer first.
What were your reasons for selecting those three?
What are the numbers of your priority questions?
You may find that your questions come from different stages of the question formulation process. Some may be developed early and some late, and for this reason it is effective to take a fair amount of time to generate a lot of questions from which to choose.
Establish Next Steps
How will you use your questions
Extended Essay
Biology Internal Assessment
Historical Research Investigation
Theory of Knowledge Essay
"Question Formulation Technique." The Right Question Institute, n.d. Web. 17 May 2015. <http://rightquestion.org>.