OER4Schools/Starting the enquiry based learning process: Difference between revisions

'''Productive''' '''questions''' can be used by the teacher to help students think about a problem in a desired direction. These types of questions are open enough to give opportunities for students to consider new ways of thinking. They usually involve questions like: “What differences and similarities do you see between these objects (or situations)?”, “Why do you think these results are different from the other experiment?”, “In your opinion, what would happen if... ?”, “How do you think you could go about...”, “How might you explain?”, “How can we be sure?”, “How many... ?”, “What is the temperature?”. The “in your opinion” and “What/why do you think” are very important here as they do not ask the student for the right answer, rather they ask what the student is thinking. In this way, teachers can progress and support the students’ enquiries. Teachers may use productive questions to help students delve more deeply into their chosen enquiry area with the hope that once students have become open to thinking this way they can begin to ask productive questions of their own.