Introduction to Questioning Strategies
Overview | Student Behaviors | Subject Area Examples

As teachers teach, they generally ask questions or create activities to assess whether or not students have learned the material. One goal is to move students toward higher order thinking. All questions/activities can be classified by using Bloom's Cognitive Taxonomy. There are six levels in the taxonomy, ranging from Knowledge (simplest) to Evaluation (most difficult). Teachers need to realize that their questions reflect different taxonomy levels.

The structure of a question can evoke either lower or higher order thinking skills. They may be used to illicit higher order thinking in students or to adapt questions to students abilities. For example, if a student could answer only those questions at a knowledge level, more difficult questions would need to be adapted.

A teacher can create higher order questions or activites for students by carefully choosing the verb used in creating the objective. The following sections provide a list of the taxonomy levels and common verbs which are used in questions at that level.They are intended to assist teachers with creating questions and/or activities that evoke higher order thinking or to adapt them to students abilities.