Through the Right Question Institute’s work, millions of students around the world are developing critical thinking skills and getting excited about learning. Adults are better able to advocate for themselves and have a say in decisions that affect them, in legal settings, social services, and beyond. More people are able to ask better questions and participate in key decisions — leading to a more robust and just democratic society.
Why learning to ask your own questions is important
- It’s a foundational skill — as critical as reading, writing, and arithmetic. It’s necessary for learning, teaching, working, life, and democratic action.
- A healthy democracy depends on the ability of citizens to ask questions.
- The ability to ask questions is not a character trait some people have and others don’t: It’s a skill everyone can learn. It can and should be taught.
- If you can ask questions, you can better navigate complex systems and get more involved in decisions affecting you, your family, and your community.
- Teaching and learning is easier and more joyful when students ask their own questions.
- Everyone, from kindergartners to Ph.D. candidates, can learn to ask better questions.
The Question Formulation Technique for teaching and learning
Greater equity
The Question Formulation Technique (QFT) creates an inclusive, equitable environment where every student participates and gets a chance to shine.
Joy in teaching
When teachers see their students are energized, eager to learn, and full of curiosity, it makes a difficult job a little bit easier and more joyful.
A culture of inquiry
Schools and classrooms that nurture student questioning through the QFT become lively places full of learning and exploration.
Confidence and engagement
Students report feeling more confident when they use the QFT. Student questioning leads to a greater sense of ownership of their learning.
More questions, more curiosity
There’s a two-way street between questions and curiosity. Curious students ask more questions, and students who ask more questions become more curious.
Rigorous thinking, more learning
Students who formulate questions together are collaborating, communicating, thinking critically, solving problems, grasping academic content, and learning how to learn.
Professional learning for educators: 'Learn today, use tomorrow'
Our professional learning experiences — including online courses and workshops — are designed to give educators tools they can use immediately.
Classrooms around the globe
The Question Formulation Technique has spread to all 50 states and over 160 countries. A growing community of 82,218 people have joined our online network of practitioners. Here are some stories of the impact it’s having:
Strategies for boosting self-advocacy and revitalizing democracy
Lawyers and clients as change agents
Legal services clients learn a strategy to navigate systems, advocate for themselves, and have a say in decisions. They become agents for themselves, their families, and their communities.
Increased self-efficacy and agency
Social-services clients learn a strategy to move from feeling helpless to having a sense of self-efficacy, from dependency to agency. They enhance their ability to solve problems and take action on their own behalf.
Our vision of Microdemocracy
Ordinary encounters with public agencies become opportunities for people to “act democratically” and participate in decisions that affect them. Democratic (small D) action at this micro level can become a pathway to activities such as organizing and voting.
Stronger school-family partnerships
Through the Right Question School-Family Partnership Strategy, parents are better able to support, monitor, and advocate for their children, and they can partner more effectively with their children’s schools.
Better patient experiences
The Right Question Effective Patient Strategy improves communication and partnerships between patients and providers, and it leads to greater patient activation and satisfaction in the health care experience.
Non-voters becoming voters
RQI’s “Why Vote?” Initiative made it easier for people who traditionally don’t vote to name for themselves the value of voting and feel greater motivation and determination to cast a ballot.
Thought leadership
RQI contributes to research and public discussion in areas such as legal empowerment, student curiosity, critical thinking, inquiry, information literacy, poverty and education, parent engagement, voter and patient activation, and more.
Staff have published papers in a range of journals and publications, including Social Innovations Journal, Education Week, Educational Leadership, Teaching Channel, Social Education, and PBS Teachers’ Lounge.
The book Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions (2011), by RQI co-founders Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana, has become a classroom classic. It’s available in seven languages and is one of Harvard Education Press’ top sellers of all time. It’s also been a top-selling pedagogical book in Japan.
Rothstein and Santana’s 2017 book, Partnering with Parents to Ask the Right Questions, co-written with Agnes Bain, unveiled one of the 10 topics of 2017 that “most changed the way we think about some aspect of teaching, learning, and leading,” according to ASCD Express.
RQI’s work has been featured in media outlets such as National Public Radio, The Boston Globe, the CBS Radio Network, KQED, and Fast Company.
Read more about RQI
Partners with vision
The Right Question Institute’s work is made possible by the support of donors and funders who recognize the importance of investing in the ability of all people to learn to ask better questions and participate in decisions.
Our work makes a key contribution in many areas, from legal empowerment and education to advocacy, health care, democratic action, and more. We are grateful to many funders and donors who have provided multi-year support in the past, including the Whitman Institute, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Jane’s Trust, the Germanacos Foundation, the Wallace Funds, the Barr Foundation, and the Packard Foundation. Current funding includes long-standing funding from the National Science Foundation and grant funding from the Library of Congress.
We are deeply grateful to the board of directors of the Right Question Institute. All members of our board donate and support the work based on their own capacity. We are grateful to them and to our many individual donors for their unwavering loyalty and commitment to democratizing access to transformative skills that can help create a stronger democracy and more just society for all.