(September 15, 2008) The most important questions of all are those asked by students as they try to make sense out of data and information. Enabling students to generate their own content questions increases engagement, improves learning, and can result in purposeful involvement with the content. Yes most of the questions in school are asked by teachers at a rate of one question every two to three seconds. Dr. Juanita García, an education associate at IDRA, discusses ways to foster student questions and describes a specific group memory strategy teachers can use right away. Juanita is interviewed by
Bradley Scott , Ph.D., director of the IDRA South Central Collaborative for Equity. Send comments to
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or fill out form online at www.idra.org/Podcasts.
* Juanita explains that the most important questions for and by students are the ones that help them sense of what they are learning.
* Juanita talks about FLAIR strategies for fostering student questions, focusing on one called "group memory."
* Juanita plays out a classroom scenario that follows the group-memory technique, which begins with students writing down everything they know about a subject.
* Juanita explains the importance of modeling when training teachers to ask higher-level questions -- rather than straight comprehension questions.
* Juanita closes the conversation with her three keys to fostering good student questions.
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