Question Formulation Technique (QFT) by Right Question Institute.

Students work in small groups with a scribe who puts their questions on a large chart paper, with a marker, so all in the group can see what is on the paper.

1. Ask as many questions as you can.

2. Do not stop to discuss, judge, or answer any question.

3. Write down every question exactly as it is stated.

4. Change any statement into a question.

5. Changing From: Closed-Ended to Open-Ended
Open-Ended to Closed-Ended. Students need to know that both kinds of questions are valuable.

6. Students choose priority questions. Let students know criteria for questions.

7. Each group reports its work to the class:

  • Priority questions they chose and rationale for choosing those as priority questions
  • Closed and open-ended questions they changed (reporting the original and the changed one)

From: Rothstein & Santana. (2014). Make Just One Change. Harvard Education Press.

The above is a summary of QFT. For details go to Right Question Institute’s website: https://rightquestion.org

How Roy Murdoch Scaffolded QFT for his eighth grade social studies students:

Students first worked in pairs to generate questions about the Constitutional Convention. They then moved to groups of three to develop, refine, and prioritize to top three questions.

Groups presented their top three questions to the whole class with rationalization. Through combining and grouping all the groups’ priority questions, the class distilled the list to six questions. These six questions were then used for part of an upcoming Constitutional Convention assessment.

Question Formulation Technique VIDEOS from Right Question Institute


QFT in the classroom:Twelfth-grade humanities (intro to the QFT

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