August Newsletter: Ideas for a New Year | Newly Published Study

Making room for questions and curiosity in professional learning

The beginning of a new school year is often the season of professional development. We’ve heard from educators how important it is that professional learning is designed to center educator voices and foster active participation and collaboration. The Question Formulation Technique can be a great vehicle for doing that. Here are a few resources for using the QFT to lead effective professional learning.

Reminder: advanced QFT course in September

To learn more about coaching, scaling, and deepening your use of the QFT, remember to sign up by September 3 for Questions at the Core: Extending the Question Formulation Technique to Sustain an Inquiry-based Culture in Schools. This online course is for those who have taken one of our previous courses (or who have enough experience using the QFT that they’re ready to take it to the next level). In this course you’ll learn how to jumpstart and sustain a deeper culture of inquiry in your school, district, classroom, or organization.

Starting the year with questions

To coincide with the beginning of the school year in the United States (your country may be on a different schedule), here are two blog posts that may inspire you to start things off with questions.

Using Questions on the First Day of School

“Every fall, teachers look for new ways to kick off the year on a high note.” The Question Formulation Technique is one way to help set the stage, to signal that curiosity, energy, positivity, and collaboration are woven into the fabric of classroom culture.

First Day of School: Using the QFT in AP and Honors Calculus

“I wanted to jump straight into the action on day one,” writes veteran math teacher Christine Relleva. Here’s how she got her AP and Honors Calculus students asking questions at the start of the year.

New study: “more and better questions” in early education

A newly published study demonstrates that using the Question Formulation Technique with early learners “can enhance their engagement, comprehension, and overall academic performance in diverse populations.”

Cora Causey, from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Amelia Spencer, from Birmingham-Southern College, published the study in the journal Thinking Skills and Creativity.

Titled, “Student-generated questions: An exploration of an instructional strategy with young children,” the study “focused on early childhood learners from under-resourced school settings” and showed how the QFT improved oral language and emergent literacy skills and led students “to ask more questions and more thoughtful questions.”

The study is available for free until September 29.

Popular QFT resources

Whether you’re new to the Question Formulation Technique or could use a refresher, here are some helpful resources.

In case you missed it: legal empowerment webinar

If you missed our free Legal Empowerment Program webinar this week, you can still register to watch the recording.

The webinar talked about building people’s capacity to advocate for themselves in the legal system and beyond. It may be of interest for people working on the front lines of legal services, criminal justice, adult education, or other direct services — at community-based organizations, public agencies, or elsewhere.