Facilitate Student Curiosity and Engagement

The skill of question asking is far too rarely deliberately taught in school. We have worked with and learned from educators to develop a teaching strategy, the Question Formulation Technique (QFT), which provides a simple yet powerful way to teach students how to formulate, work with, and use their own questions.

Access free, easy-to-use resources

Steps of the QFT & Video Guide

Steps of the QFT & Video Guide
Detailed steps of the QFT and links to video footage for corresponding steps.

The QFT on One Slide

The QFT on One Slide
A quick, one-page overview of the whole Question Formulation Technique process.

Experiencing the QFT

Use this template to learn the QFT process by experiencing it yourself.

Introducing the QFT into Your Classroom Practice

This PowerPoint will help you prepare for introducing your students or colleagues to the QFT. It includes all the steps…

The Question Formulation Technique in Action

This video shows a 12th-grade humanities teacher, Ling-Se Chesnakas, using the QFT with her class in Boston. Ling-Se used the QFT to prepare students for a Socratic seminar and help them with a writing assignment about the book "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao," by Junot Diaz.

My QFT Journey: Putting Students’ Minds into Motion with their Questions

My QFT Journey: Putting Students’ Minds into Motion with their Questions
Helping my students find their voice through questioning has led directly to their academic achievement. The level of student growth over the last five months has been unbelievable.

Teaching Students to Ask Their Own Questions: One Small Change Can Yield Big Results

Teaching Students to Ask Their Own Questions: One Small Change Can Yield Big Results
For teachers, using the QFT requires one small but significant shift in practice: Students will be asking all the questions.

“How does the sun’s power get into you?” Using the QFT to Explore Energy with First Graders

“How does the sun’s power get into you?” Using the QFT to Explore Energy with First Graders
What I like about the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) process is that it provides an opportunity for my first graders to ask their questions without feeling insecure or judged on their prior knowledge.

How Questioning Can Drive Arguments, Productive Debate & Information Literacy Among Students

How Questioning Can Drive Arguments, Productive Debate & Information Literacy Among Students
The Question Formulation Technique (QFT) is a step-by-step process that creates a space and a structure for students to generate…

What is the QFT?

Already a Member? Log in.

There is more than one way to ask a question and revising questions can be a very productive, and effective, strategy to innovate…the QFT helped me take time to really think through what it is I want to do with my projects, as well as consider potential, new directions.

I plan to use the QFT to generate curiosity at the beginning of semester and to let students generate research paper ideas at semester end.

The questions I had almost forced me to try and answer them, which better helped my understanding. I knew what I needed to look for.

[The QFT] helps you form ideas, new ideas, and like prepare yourself for what you’re about to learn or what you’re learning.

I thought of new questions I didn’t realize I was curious about once I started brainstorming all the options.

Events

OUR IMPACT

Sign up for the RQI Network to access these resources.

The hundreds of free resources you will find on our network will help you easily move into action to learn a strategy one day and facilitate the very next.

Already a Member? Log in.

Please join to view member profiles.

You’ll also get access to hundreds of free resources that will help you easily move into action to learn a strategy one day and facilitate the very next.

Already a Member? Log in.