Choosing and using the right kind, type, and level of questions is one of the most important aspects of high-impact instruction. The challenge for teachers is to ask questions that prompt engagement, thought, and learning. Good questions engage students intellectually; they hook students and get them thinking. Once students are engaged and thinking, learning happens.

Let's take a look at some different types (open and closed), kinds (right or wrong), and levels (knowledge, skill, big idea) of questions that will engage students and increase learning.

Types

Open Questions. I define open questions as those that have an unlimited (or open) number of responses. The number of possible answers can't be counted, and that is what makes the question, for our purposes, an open question.

Closed Questions. Closed questions have a finite number of possible answers. If you keep answering a closed question correctly, eventually you will get to a point where no more correct answers are left. Since the possible number of answers for a closed question is limited, at some point the question can be completely answered.

Most frequently, closed questions elicit short answers, but again, what defines a closed question is not the length of the answer but the finite number of possible answers. You can visualize the difference between the two types of questions by imagining a closed and an open field. A closed field would be surrounded by a fence, and someone running in the field would only be able to go as far as the fence allowed. An open field, on the other hand, would have no fences, so a runner could run as far as she wished with no barriers to limit how far she could go. A closed question, like a fenced-in field, is finite, with a limited number of responses. An open question, like an open and unfenced horizon, theoretically, has an infinite number of responses.

Neither type of question is necessarily good or bad, and open questions are not superior to closed questions in all circumstances. However, when classroom conversation is dull and lacks energy, it is often because the teacher is trying to move conversation forward with closed questions when open questions would be more likely to provoke real thinking.

When closed questions are effective, it is usually when they are used to confirm and check student understanding. What matters here is that the right question is asked for the right instructional goal, and the same distinction is true for the kind of question asked.

Kind

Right or Wrong Questions. Right or wrong questions have correct or incorrect answers. The purpose of a right or a wrong question is to determine whether or not students understand something that has been taught or learned. According to Jackie Acree Walsh and Beth Dankert Sattes (2004), who cite the research of Gall (1984), 80% of questions are low level, fact, recall, or knowledge questions, all forms of right or wrong questions. As with closed and open questions, there is nothing inferior or superior about right or wrong questions, but teachers must be careful to use them when they are appropriate.

Opinion Questions. With opinion questions, it is very difficult to give an incorrect answer to a skillfully crafted opinion question. Opinion questions are effective catalysts for conversation because they remove the main reason why many students don't speak up in class — they are afraid of giving an incorrect answer in front of their peers. Since they can't be wrong when they are asked to share their opinion, students are much more willing to participate in classroom discussion when teachers use this approach to questioning.

Levels

Knowledge Questions. Knowledge questions prompt students to demonstrate that they can remember information they have learned.

Skill Questions. Skill questions prompt students to apply their knowledge to situations or settings. They prompt people to explain how to do something.

Big Ideas. Big idea questions communicate the themes, concepts, overarching ideas, and content structures that recur throughout a course. They prompt students to demonstrate that they comprehend the implications of the information they have learned. They are the questions that often lead students to "aha", deeper insights.

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The high-impact questions described here are by no means the only way to rethink questioning. There are additional ways of thinking about questions; however, my experience has shown that considering the type, kind, and level of question is a great place to start improving questioning skills.

Learn more about effective questions in High Impact Instruction (2013) or by partnering with us for customized professional development.