How To Find Good Questions

Inquiry Learning

It Starts Here

• Before you can start your own inquiry on what interests you, you need a good “Fertile” question to answer.

An open question.

A question that in principle has no one definitive answer; rather, it has several different and competing possible answers.

The Fertile Question is…

The Fertile Question is…

An undermining question.

A question that undermines basic assumptions and casts doubt on what most people would consider common sense.

The Fertile Question is…

A rich question.

A deep question about humanity and the world around us. They can’t be answered without careful and lengthy research of sub-questions.

The Fertile Question is…

A connected question.

A question relevant to you, or society

The Fertile Question is…

A charged question.

Ethical questions. May be emotional, social, or political questions.

The Fertile Question is…

A practical question.

A question that you can develop sub-questions for. These sub-questions are able to be researched with the resources available

Fertile Questions

A good fertile question should have as many of these characteristics as possible

Make Some questions…• 6 Personal questions eg. What is love?• 6 Questions about family eg. Are we better

off living in NZ?• 6 Questions about community eg. Should the

artifical reef be extended?• 6 Questions of national importance eg. Is NZ

united?• 6 Questions of international importance eg.

Why do people travel?• 6 Cultural questions eg Why do Asian

students often get higher marks than other NZ students?

Choose Your Best…

Choose what you think is your best question from each category.

Fight For Your Question…

In groups of THREE, defend your questions in a debate, until your group agrees on one best question for each category.

Student 1’s Questions

Agreed best questions

Student 3’s Questions

Student 2’s Questions

Take Your Pick…

Choose one of these great fertile questions to answer!

What Do You Know?

QuickTime™ and aSorenson Video 3 decompressorare needed to see this picture.

The UnknownAs we know,There are known knowns.There are things we know we know.We also knowThere are known unknowns.That is to sayWe know there are some thingsWe do not know.But there are also unknown unknowns,The ones we don't knowWe don't know.

What is Your Question About?

• Make a mind map of all the ideas associated with your question.

What Possible Answers can You Think Of?

Try to hypothesise what you think might be an answer to your question (provide as much detail and as many reasons as you can).

Now What ?

• Before you can answer your fertile question, you must first break it down into smaller, researchable questions

ResearchQuestions

ResearchQuestions

ResearchQuestions

ResearchQuestions

ResearchQuestions

ResearchQuestions

Fertile question- rich and complex

The Question Game• To start, two participants

decide on a topic to question. • One person starts with an

open-ended question, then the other person responds with a related open-ended question.

• This goes back and forth as long as they can continue without making a statement or repeating a previous question.

The Question Game• For example, the topic might be an

object in the room, such as a light bulb:

• A: Why is it important to have light?

• B: Where does light come from?• A: How does light help people?• B: Where is light used?• A: What would happen if there

were no light?

But Are They Good Research Questions?

• Just like good fertile questions, good research questions must also have certain characteristics

A good research question must be …

1. Interesting to you, and possibly also interesting ”objectively” (e.g., an original question, a question that sheds new light on a phenomenon, a question that tests things we take for granted);

A good research question must be …

2. Open (requiring that you consult a range of both opposing and supporting resources to get the whole picture);

A good research question must be …

3. Rich (requiring deep and reasonably lengthy research;

A good research question must be …

4. Connected or relevant to, the main fertile question;

A good research question must be …

5. Practical (is actually able to be answered with the resources available).