Unlocking Effortful Thinking by Asking the Right Questions 

Social studies teacher Kalen Dillon knows exactly which questions will push her students at Delta Middle School, in Delta, CO, towards more effortful thinking. With just the right balance of encouragement and accountability, Dillon prompts her students with a very intentional sequence of questions to demonstrate their understanding—and make their own connections between concepts.

Today, the class is working on a hexagonal thinking activity as part of their unit on Abrahamic religions. Dillon likes this activity because it makes her students use their reasoning and evaluation skills. “My job as the teacher,” she explains, “is to facilitate the questions that will lead them down a deeper path.”

She doesn’t just jump in with complex questions right off the bat. She first gauges where each student is by asking for some foundational information—with “who,” “what,” and “where” questions. Once she has established what the student’s baseline understanding is, she pivots to the more challenging “why” and “how” questions. 

Meg Lee from Learning Science Partners explains the importance of this progression. “I might have an idea for a very good effortful question, but I might need to lay the groundwork for that with some questions that might not be as effortful, but will give them the reinforcement of that content understanding to be able to answer the effortful question.”

Lee also warns of certain pitfalls to avoid when asking questions—not giving a student enough think time to wrestle with a response, or calling on a student who you already know will deliver what you are looking for. “[When I was] a teacher, questioning evolved for me. Every time I learned something new about how learning happens, I had to rethink my questions.” 

One of her key takeaways? 

“When a teacher shifts their thinking from the questions they want to ask to the thinking they want students to do, that actually helps them to formulate their questions more effectively.” She goes on to explain, “When I target my question to what I want students to be thinking about, it ensures that I'm directing student thinking to the most important pieces of that day's lesson.”

In Dillon’s classroom, she circulates to each group of students, spending several minutes guiding students from basic questions to those that require them to elaborate and explain their reasoning. With patience and persistence, she is able to use those questions keep them at the site of effortful thinking for a longer period of time—which ultimately helps them process new content and encode it in their long-term memory.

This video is part of our How Learning Happens: Instructional Shifts series, which explores teaching practices grounded in the science of learning.