There arefive basic types of questions:
Factual;Convergent; Divergent; Evaluative; and Combination
The art of askingquestions is one of the basic skills of good teaching. Socrates believed thatknowledge and awareness were an intrinsic part of each learner. Thus, inexercising the craft of good teaching an educator must reach into the learner'shidden levels of knowing and awareness in order to help the learner reach newlevels of thinking.
Through the art ofthoughtful questioning teachers can extract not only factual information, butaid learners in: connecting concepts, making inferences, increasing awareness,encouraging creative and imaginative thought, aiding critical thinkingprocesses, and generally helping learners explore deeper levels of knowing,thinking, and understanding.
As you examine thecategories below, reflect on your own educational experiences and see if you canascertain which types of questions were used most often by different teachers.Hone your questioning skills by practicing asking different types of questions,and try to monitor your teaching so that you include varied levels ofquestioning skills. Specifically in the area of Socratic questioning techniques,there are a number of sites on the Web which might prove helpful. Simply use Socratic-questioning as a descriptor. Don't forget to hyphenate the term.
1. Factual- Soliciting reasonably simple, straight forward answers based on obvious factsor awareness. These are usually at the lowest level of cognitive or affectiveprocesses and answers are frequently either right or wrong.
See AlsoList QuestionMcMaster LibGuides: Studying and Taking Exams: Four Levels of QuestionsQuestioning approaches: types of questions - Study HigherThe 4 Fundamental Questions: Why, Why Not, What if, and HowExample: What is the name the Shakespeare play about the Prince of Denmark?
2. Convergent -Answers to these types of questions are usually within a very finite range ofacceptable accuracy. These may be at several different levels of cognition --comprehension, application, analysis, or ones where the answerer makesinferences or conjectures based on personal awareness, or on material read,presented or known.
Example: On reflecting over the entirety of the play Hamlet, what were the main reasons why Ophelia went mad? (This is not specifically stated in one direct statement in the text of Hamlet. Here the reader must make simple inferences as to why she committed suicide.)
3. Divergent -These questions allow students to explore different avenues and create manydifferent variations and alternative answers or scenarios. Correctness may bebased on logical projections, may be contextual, or arrived at through basicknowledge, conjecture, inference, projection, creation, intuition, orimagination. These types of questions often require students to analyze,synthesize, or evaluate a knowledge base and then project or predict differentoutcomes.
Answering divergent questions may be aided by higher levels ofaffective functions. Answers to these types of questions generally fall into awide range of acceptability. Often correctness is determined subjectively basedon the possibility or probability. Frequently the intention of these types of divergent questionsis to stimulate imaginative and creative thought, or investigate cause andeffect relationships, or provoke deeper thought or extensive investigations. And, one needs to be prepared for the fact that there may not be right or definitely correct answers to these questions.
Divergent questions may also serve as larger contexts for directing inquiries, and as such may become what are know as "essential" questions that frame the content of an entire course.
Example: In the love relationship of Hamlet and Ophelia, what might have happened to their relationship and their lives if Hamlet had not been so obsessed with the revenge of his father's death?
Example of a divergent question that is also essential and divergent:Like many authors throughout time, Shakespeare dwells partly on the pain of love in Hamlet. Why is painful love so often intertwined with good literature. What is its never ending appeal to readers?
4. Evaluative -These types of questions usually require sophisticated levels ofcognitiveand/or emotional judgment. In attempting to answer evaluativequestions,students may be combining multiple logical and/or affective thinkingprocess, or comparative frameworks. Often an answer is analyzedat multiplelevels and from different perspectives before the answerer arrives atnewlysynthesized information or conclusions.
Examples:
a. What are the similarities and differences between the deaths of Ophelia when compared to that of Juliet?
b. What are the similarities and differences between Roman gladiatorial games and modern football?
c. Why and how might the concept of Piagetian schema be related to the concepts presented in Jungian personality theory, and why might this be important to consider in teaching and learning?
5. Combinations- These are questions that blend any combination of the above.
More details and suggestions on this topic see -This rough magic by Daniel Lindley
There are other authors who talk about the art of asking questions. One is H. Lynn Erickson and she talks about 3 types of questions as being factual, conceptual, and provocative.
If you look at the listing above, it should become apparent that these are the same types of categories. Erickson's factual are still the ones that are easily answered with definitive, and comparatively simple answers. These are the questions you find on the show Jeopardy. Unfortunately they are also too common in schools and on tests.
Her conceptual questions might be ones that are convergent, divergent, or evaluative in construction -- ones that delve deeper and require more sophisticated levels of cognitive processing and thinking.
Her provocative ones are ones that entice and ones cannot be answered with easy answers. They are questions can be used to motivate and frame content or are essential questions. In the initial categorization above they would be either complex divergent questions or more sophisticated combination questions like divergent/evaluative ones.
Erickson, H. L. (2007) Concept-based curriculum and instruction for thethinking classroom. Thousand Oaks, Corwin Press.
Linksto other sites on questioning
On-linequestions - Based on Bloom's Taxonomy
