an interview with Deirdre Brotherson by Mikah Farbo Earlier this month Deirdre Brotherson, a 5th grade teacher at Hooksett Memorial School in New Hampshire, took time out of her busy day to speak with me and share her experience with the Question Formulation Technique (QFT). Through our conversation, I learned how Brotherson’s use of the […]
June 8, 2016
Elementary Students Driving their Learning by Asking Questions: An Interview with Deirdre Brotherson
May 10, 2016
Three and Four Year Old Students Learning to Ask Their Own Questions
By: Lisa Bernadino, Kristen Harvey, Andrea Serino, Kristen Sasso, Donna Rosso, & Margaret Adams “In early childhood classrooms, science based lessons are something that are often done, but not as often explored by students,” shares Kristen Harvey, Pre-Kindergarten teacher at the Franklin. The Franklin Early Childhood Center, part of the Melrose Public Schools in Massachusetts, serves approximately 300 three […]
April 20, 2016
The Foldscope: Making Discoveries Through Experience
by Aisha Suara Manu Prakash’s Foldscope is simple, cost-effective, and most importantly, geared towards experience rather than information. A recent article in the New Yorker by Carolyn Kormann tells the story of Manu Prakash, a biophysicist at Stanford, who is working to revolutionize global health through his new invention called the Foldscope. The Foldscope is […]
March 31, 2016
Announcing The Million Classrooms Campaign
The Right Question Institute (RQI) is excited to launch our campaign to ensure that the Question Formulation Technique is used to develop students’ thinking abilities and curiosity in a million classrooms by the year 2020. Our “Million Classrooms Campaign” is part of a larger project made possible with the support of a generous grant from the […]
March 23, 2016
St. Patrick Expelling the Snakes from Ireland: Using the QFT During Question Week
By Joshua Beer I have been enjoying Question Week and the extra reason to focus on students generating their own questions. We have used the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) all week in my classes, along with a few components of Project Zero’s Artful Thinking. Here is one example of a QFT I used. The Question Focus […]
March 16, 2016
The Question Formulation Technique Mentioned in The Atlantic and the New York Times Learning Network
The Right Question Institute Mentioned in The Atlantic In, “Educating an Original Thinker,” The Atlantic’s education columnist Jessica Lahey interviews Wharton Professor Adam Grant about his new book, Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World. In the interview, Grant explores the role that educators and parents can have in nurturing original thinking in children. He argues that creative thinking skills […]
March 14, 2016
How to Deepen Student Learning Using PBL & the QFT
By Jim Bentley When I started teaching, my primary concerns were fairly straightforward: engage students personally, plan clear instruction, and manage behavior effectively. I was the leader of instruction, and I perceived my job to be one of shepherding my students and helping them whenever they struggled. Looking back now, I can see it was […]
March 14, 2016
Video: The Question Formulation Technique in a High School Science Class
The Question Formulation Technique (QFT) is being used in schools and districts across the United States. Educators use the QFT to promote student-centered learning and increase student engagement. In this video, students in David Meshoulam’s ninth grade physics class at Newton North High School (Massachusetts) go through the Question Formulation Technique process towards the end of a unit on […]
March 14, 2016
Lincoln, Power, and the Question Formulation Technique (QFT)
By Daniel Fouts Where was the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) 23 years ago? When I began teaching social studies in 1993, I relied on teacher-generated questions to frame my government curriculum. After first reading about the QFT in the September/ October 2011 edition of the Harvard Education Letter, I changed the way I teach. I […]
March 14, 2016
Video: Using the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) for Formative Assessment
This video shows how the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) may be used to formatively assess students’ understanding of a concept or their knowledge of a topic. Educators can use the QFT to formatively assess their students at the beginning of a unit (as seen in this video), in the middle of the unit, and towards […]
