Monday, April 2, 2012

Which questions invite discussion best?


Which questions have you asked that generated a thought-provoking discussion?  Please leave answers in the Comments. 

Here are some questions I have used in the past to gather feedback.  Some of these originate from Thomas Angelo and Patricia Cross's Classroom Assessment Techniques, which is printed by Jossey-Bass.
  • What's the most important thing you learned today?
  • What questions do you have that remain unanswered?
  • What is the muddiest point?
  • What would you like to learn today?
Not sure if I have asked some of these others, but they seem like good ones:
  • How does this apply to your own life?
  • How can this information be applied outside of this class?
  • How do you find research for your college papers?
  • What makes a source good and/or reliable?  What makes it worth using?
  • What is a reference resource?  Why would you want to use one?
  • What is the difference between popular and scholarly articles?  Between newspaper/magazines and academic journals
Here are some questions that may be good to ask with audience response systems, clickers, or text messaging software:
  • Have you searched for books in our catalog?
  • Have you searched for books on the shelves?
  • Have you found articles in the library databases?
  • How can you typically distinguish the journal title or book title from the rest of the cited reference?
  • What makes a source good and/or reliable? What makes it worth using?

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