Asking the Right Questions

At the heart of most interactive classrooms is the give and take of student questions to faculty and faculty questions to students. One of the critical skills our faculty value is the ability to formulate a good question.

---

Biology 252: Provoking Critical Questions (MP4 Video 6.3MB Jul28 17) (3:03 min)
Difficult and thought-provoking questions emerge as vital part of Matt's pedagogy, as he expects students to engage his presentations with active and critical thinking.

Classics 114: Fielding Questions (MP4 Video 7.7MB Jul31 17) (3:36 min)
Clara talks about the importance of asking good questions and responding with an appropriate level of detail for the context of the class.

Classics 114: Questions that Connect (MP4 Video 7.2MB Jul28 17) (4:05 min)
Clara articulates the filters students need to use when thinking about ancient culture.

History 137: Lecture/Questions: Creating Interplay (MP4 Video 44.3MB Jul28 17) (5:08 min)
Bill describes his approach to a class period, his own agenda, and how he tries to balance that with student questions and confusions.

History 161: Thinking Like a Historian (MP4 Video 11.6MB Jul31 17) (5:11 min) Parna discusses how she poses questions to encourage her students to think like a historian and how she has embraced a more open structure to her classes to allow for this.

Math 106: Teaching the Process (MP4 Video 16.4MB Jul31 17) (7:50 min)
Deanna discusses modeling how mathematicians creatively approach problems by posing open-ended questions in class and having students argue for particular solutions.

Physics 131: The Frictionless Wall (MP4 Video 12MB Jul31 17) (4:58 min)
Arjendu expresses his pleasure at seeing his students ask questions that reveal their deeper understanding of physics, and the consequent need for him to adjust his teaching to respond to their new understanding.

Political Science 230: Asking Better Questions (MP4 Video 12.2MB Jul31 17) (5:18 min)
Greg talks about the importance of teaching students to formulate questions that frame issues in a way that is consistent with social science research, as opposed to punditry.