A good question can spark curiosity and fuel creativity, understanding, and innovation. Question-formulation is an increasingly vital skill for critical thinking, literacy, inquiry, and civic engagement in the 21st century, as reflected in many new state and national standards. Yet, it is rare that the skill of question formulation is deliberately taught to students. How can we transform teaching and learning and build the capacity for all students to take greater ownership and develop higher order thinking skills through question-asking?
Join us for a special one-day workshop to learn the Question Formulation Technique (QFT), a simple yet powerful strategy to teach students how to ask and use their own questions. On their own initiative and without any mandate, more than 250,000 educators in diverse pre-k through higher education settings worldwide are now using the QFT simply because it helps their students become more curious and fully engaged learners.
In this hands-on, active learning experience, participants will work closely with staff from The Right Question Institute (RQI) and collaborate with educators and administrators from across the region to explore the many ways the QFT is stimulating student curiosity, promoting deeper learning, and helping to build the democratic habit of mind of asking questions.
Over the course of the session, participants will:
• actively experience the QFT
• see classroom examples from kindergarten through higher education classrooms
• learn strategies for effective QFT design, facilitation, and trouble-shooting
• work with planning tools and classroom resources to begin designing and revising their own lesson with the QFT
• learn best practices for designing professional learning using the QFT
Workshop participants leave with a deep understanding of the strategy and the ability to immediately apply it with students and share it with colleagues. This workshop also supports instructional coaches and school and district leaders who want to encourage more inquiry in the classroom.