The Research Program at the Right Question Institute
RQI’s Research Program provides support for:
- Research on the Question Formulation Technique.
- Applications of the Question Formulation Technique for Research to enhance research across various fields.
Background on the Theory of Question Formulation
The Question Formulation Technique is being used by social workers, legal aid attorneys, and direct services workers in communities across the country and by educators in more than a million classrooms around the world, from kindergarten through doctoral and post-doctoral studies.
The extraordinary work of people around the world using the QFT has demonstrated that learning to formulate one’s own questions has a transformative effect that leads to greater agency across different ages, fields, communities, and countries.
RQI has synthesized data and analysis from decades of work and multiple sources in order to develop a theory that explains what consistently happens when people formulate their own questions. Our Theory of Question Formulation for Learning shows how question formulation can lead to more motivated learners and nimble thinkers. Our Theory of Question Formulation for Democratic Action unpacks how question formulation can lead to motivated and savvy actors who take more effective democratic action.
We are developing new resources related to our Theory of Question Formulation, which will soon be available on our website.
Educator Survey Shows the QFT Enhances Student Learning
* Results show responses from 394 educators in a survey administered from March 20 to April 10, 2025.
Resources
The College of Science & Liberal Arts at New Jersey Institute of Technology introduced the QFT and the QFT for Research to faculty and Ph.D. students. Read about the impact.
Some researchers have studied the effectiveness of the Question Formulation Technique. See examples of studies on the QFT.
A collection of research studies relevant to a Theory of Question Formulation. See research on the impact of student questions on learning.
Contact us
Please contact us if you are interested in updates on our work or using the QFT at your institution of higher education.
Examples of RQI’s Work in Higher Education
National Science Foundation-funded projects
- EAGER: The Question Improvement Model: A Simple and Scalable Model for Improving the Question Formulation Skills of Ph.D. Students (2017-2020). In partnership with Brandeis University.
- 2020 Conference on Question Formulation Technique in Higher Education: “Untapping the Power of Questions” (2019-2021). In partnership with Northeastern University.
- GERMINATION EXPANSION: Building Question Formulation Capacity through the Research Question Network (rQnet) (2022-present). In partnership with Northeastern University.
Institutions
- Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education (APSCE)
- Austin Community College
- Brandeis University
- Harvard University
- Harvard Graduate School of Education
- Learning Incubator at Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
- Harvard College Math Department
- Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching
- Miami Dade College
- New Jersey Institute of Technology
- Southern New Hampshire University
- Tokyo Gakugei University
- Tufts University’s Tisch College of Civic Life