Why Do Students’
Questions Matter Most?
We have trained students
so well to be question
answerers that by the time
they reach middle school
some think their job is to
be mind readers. Kenneth
Vogler (2008) estimates that
“teachers ask about 300–400
questions per day and as
many as 120 questions per
hour.” Researcher Susan
Black (2001) reports that
teachers’ verbal questioning
of their students is second
only to teacher lecturing.
Yet when students stop
asking questions, they begin
to abdicate responsibility for
their learning. Instead, they
sit back and let someone
else do the thinking for
them.
Don’t get me wrong.
There is definitely a place
for teacher questioning.
But most of the time,
teachers ask questions they
already know the answers
to, leaving little space for
original thought. Often, a
student can get the answer by putting
it into Google or SparkNotes. Asking
even high-level questions doesn’t
necessarily mean getting high-level
answers that students came up with on
their own.
We are kidding ourselves if we think
our questions alone turn students into
critical thinkers. But if we ask students
to ask questions that they care about,
we get a truer sense of their understanding. It’s a lot harder to fake an
authentic question than it is to copy an
answer from some Internet site.
Barbara Bess, whom I taught with
years ago, has a motto: “The brilliance is in the question” (Tovani,
2011). One day when I was observing,
I heard her say, “No one is going to
cure cancer by repeating some fact
that the experts already know. It will
be a researcher’s question that leads
to a new discovery. As literature
researchers, what is your question?”
Instead of spending time honing
our questioning skills, it’s time we
help students hone theirs. Giving stu-
dents opportunities to practice ques-
tioning will help them way beyond the
classroom. People who wonder set a
purpose for themselves. They know
asking questions will propel them to
continue reading and learning. Ques-
tions give learners a tool for picking
out information that may be useful.
In addition, learners
who ask questions are able
to isolate their confusion.
Questions force them to
articulate what their confusion is instead of merely
saying, “What? I don’t get
this!” Learners can then
work to repair their confusion by seeking more
information. Asking questions gives learners control.
When I think about the
students I am preparing
to run the world, I want
them to seek information
and articulate their confusion. I want them to be
propelled to study more and
to have strategies that help
them stay with challenging
material. What I don’t
want is for them to repeat
information that everyone
already knows—what a
waste of time. I much prefer
that my students tell me
what they wonder so I can
guide their learning.
It gets boring asking the
same old questions over
and over again. If I’m bored
with my instruction, most likely stu-
dents are bored, too. Recently, after
observing one of my classes, a col-
league said, “It must be nice to not
have any discipline problems so you
can teach.” Although students occa-
sionally act out in my room, I rarely
have long-term discipline issues. It’s
not because I have a no-fail classroom
management plan. My secret, I think,
is focusing on my students’ questions.
How Can I Get Students
to Ask Questions?
I taught elementary school for years
before becoming a high school
teacher. The younger the grade, the
©
SUSIE
F
ITZHUGH