Modified generated question learning, and its classroom implementation and assessment

Figures & data

Figure 1. Generated questions learning model Crogman and Trebeau (2016) modified to accommodate for showing the dynamics at play around question asking, the student, and the instructor in a learning environment

Figure 2. Generated question learning model in the classroom

Figure 3. Types of generated questions levels to consider in the GQLM setting

Figure 4. Illustration that all problems can be decomposed in simpler tasks to arrive at a solution to the overall problem

Figure 5. Problem-solving teaching through question modeling

Figure 6. Interplay between Socratic teaching and Didactic teaching to engage the critical thought process Crogman et al. (2015)

Figure 7. Applying the GQLM in a large class setting’s sections

Table 1. Break down of GQLM components for effective teaching and Learning. To be used for research or teaching purposes

	Tool	Rationale	How to use it
Theory	Expertise in active learning pedagogies such as IBL, PBL etc. and Critical Thinking activities	Active learning pedagogies keeps the class interactive, and promotes critical thinking in students	Attend specialized trainings and workshops showing a number of IBL, PBL teaching strategies
			Relinquish control for allowing more intellectual and physical exploration of the subject at study.
	Expertise in Socratic Teaching with Emphasis on Question asking modeling	GQLM makes Socratic question asking accessible to students, even in large classrooms. Learning to ask better and more frequent questions increases critical thinking quality	Announce early that question asking is your objective and teaching format. Warm up student for the first few classes by encouraging to speak out. Reward all interventions, and build upon each students’ questions. Bring up their JTL questions anonymously and show how these questions benefit the class to give students confidence that their interventions are worth being heard
	Unconditional Positive Expectations	Expecting students, whatever their background and academic levels, to perform in your classroom is the right attitude to have to pull them forward. This should transpire through your attitude, personality, and grading	“ I appreciate your comment/question”, “How are you today?” “You had a rough time at the exam? How can I help, I care for your success” ect., these prompts show students they count and are expected to master the class. These implicit interventions profoundly impact students, preventing stereotype threats attached to the way many students expect academics to view them
Atmosphere	GQLM tenets:	Instructors enhance class atmosphere by being ready and flexible, allowing students to feel connected to the material, and classmates, and helping students feel free to learn, ask, and interact	The practitioner must be trained in understanding 1/ various cultural norms, 2/ how to set up dynamic and interactive instruction, and 3/how to create connections through 1-1 interaction and effective communication
	*Preparedness
	*Connectivity
	*Comfortability
Class Format	Short Lectures	Less is more, the GQLM shortens lectures to give more space to practice, discussion, and Socratic questioning exchanges	Lectures should last 10 to 15mins with interactive activities with clickers questions integrated to help foster discussion and assess real time learning. Class could start with interactive demos/ activities with lectures next. Students make predictions then explore
	Grouping	The GQLM uses information from the pre-Concept Inventory test to group students. 1 strong, 2 medium, and 1 weak student together. When appropriate, this group will work together on assignments. Performances of the assignment must be used to consolidate or modify the groups in order to keep pushing the bottom tier of the class up. Crogman et al (2015) have shown that keeping the strongest students interested, and pulling the weakest to higher performances	CI done the first day of class or online with instruction for students to take before the first day of class. Use the information to create groups and help with lecture prep
	Intriguing Demos	In the GQLM this is called the “WOW factor“. Numerous research shows that students who are intrigued learn better. Instructors must set up an atmosphere of intrigue at the start and throughout class time to maintain students’ desire to learn	To introduce the subject of discussion. Ask student to make predictions about the phenomenon
	Hands on Practice	Hands on practice is a direct product of IBL and allows students to explore, be engaged, stay alert and produce meaning from their discoveries	Give activities that reinforce lecture or to introduce it
	Technology	A key feature of the GQLM is the combination of traditional and modern teaching in which technology has a large place. Students from this generation have computers in their hands and show technological expertise and interests which must be harnessed to allow students to feel connected to their learning with items they are familiar with	Technology helps with drawing students’ curiosity. Clickers used to assess real time learning in class. Web-based interactive pedagogy can be used as an exploration for the subject being discussed
	JTL (Just In Time Learning)	Used to foster students’ question asking development. It helps instructors to check the temperature of the class, see where students stumble and address those issues at the next class	The JTL is a short questionnaire given at the end of instruction at every class or as often as needed in which students include three things they learned in the lecture, and one question they have
Assessment	Pre & post Concept Inventory	This is a major part of the success of GQLM. Instructors must keep good track of progress to make adjustments. The pre-concept inventory tests students’ base knowledge, allows to feel the class’ achievement level, and produce groups which will help pull the bottom tier up while keeping the most proficient students engaged. The post-CI allows to see how the class responded to the GQLM instruction and is more of a research tool, or an indicator for instructors about what would need to be adjusted or how well they did	Find online, or build your own set of questions which would test the extent of students’ knowledge about the different main concepts covered in class. Note that having to build the CI takes some time. Ask several problem questions, give a choice of solutions, and then ask also what concept the question was about. Add also the possibility to say “I do not know” “I do not remember”. This will allow a more fine tuned data for analyses. Compare the results of pre & post tests to see how efficient your instruction was
	Formal and Informal assessment	This is up to the instructor, but some training must be had to understand how to not use constantly the same type of testing in order to give students a chance at different level of examinations, and keep the learning experience multisensory	Again, the trainings and workshops we mentioned early will give plenty of examples of assessments. But this is basically pointing out that students must be assessed with paper/pencil options (multiple choice, matching, fill in blanck ../…), but also orally, through their ability to work in group, through their ability to create, their listening skills and so forth. Not every assessment needs be graded, however they all must be used to provide ample feedback to students and instructors to adjust and improve

Figure 8. Students’ and Teachers’ roles in ill-structured problem solving with GQLM

Table 2. Breakdown of GQLM-based teaching (blending didactive and active learning strategies through multisensory pedagogies)

Discipline	Concept	Didactive pedagogy	Multisensory pedagogy	Active learning pedagogy		Feedback	Conclusion
Physics	Falling objects	Do heavier objects fall more slowly than lighter objects?	Demo: Two objects of close masses are dropped and time is noted. Which hits the ground first? Two objects of different masses fall and time is noted. Which hits the ground first? This demo creates conceptual conflict between classroom teaching and students’ experience. Students are asked to write down questions to discuss in groups	IBL: Six stations are set up to explore this question. Students will drop two objects of different masses in various fluids of different viscosities (Air, water, oil, and honey), and note the fall time difference. Students are then asked to plot the density vs. the difference in time on a graph, and note the time difference behavior as they go from a more viscous fluid to a less viscous one		Back to didactive mode with a brief presentation	EJTL: Students responses observed
		Theory: If an object is heavier the force of gravity is greater, but since it has greater mass the acceleration is the same, so it moves at the same speed (neglect air resistance). If we look at Newton’s second law, F = ma. The force of gravity is F = mg, where m is the mass of the object and g is the acceleration due to gravity		Clicker Questions followed by discussion in groups (with neighbor) and then individual re-poll		Demo: Allowing the object of different to fall in a vacuum. Equating, we have mg = ma. That is, a = g, if there was no air resistance. Therefore, a feather would fall at the same speed as a rock	Classroom Concept Demo Survey (CCDS): Student feedback on concepts, ill-structured problems, and their curiosity
				Question: What role do you believe air resistance played and what would you expect if there was no air?			Post FCI: Students’ performance on the concept is assessed
				Generated Question: Invite students to ask questions they would like to explore further or open discussion for them to reflect on the reasonableness of their answers			Ill-structured problems: Reflection on assumptions, strategies and reasonableness of answers
				Well-structured problems	Ill-structured problems
				Estefany drops a brick off the 20-meter-high physics’ building roof. Determine the time required for the brick to reach the ground	Design an experiment to determine the height of buildings on campus using falling objects
					Does the size of the objects’ mass affect how this object falls?
Cognitive psychology	Mechanism of Psycho-physical perception in vision	Short lecture on perception: establishing the cognitive and physical processes involved in perception. Connection with consciousness, emotion, expectation, biases, priming. Examples of illusions (i.e. rotating snakes, the back pack and hill experiment), and connection to human behavior	Presentation of a colored still image with a dot in the middle that students have to focus on (30 s). Then the color suddenly fades to black and white, but students still see color on the picture. As their senses are confronted with the discrepancy, they slowly can see the color fade away	Well-structured problems	Ill-structured problems	Back to didactive mode with a brief presentation of the official color vision theories, a word of how the discovered effects can interfere with psychology (witnessing, fear, navigation…/…)	EJTL: Students response observed
				Students write a few questions they have about the phenomenon they just observed (set that aside). Have you seen color when it wasn’t there? (Yes/No) - notice individual differences. What structures do you know are involved in vision? (go over an interactive brain online where students can interact with brain parts and exchange on which centers are involved), then discussion in general class	In your opinion, what is creating the visual color discrepancy you saw? Based on the structures we saw in the eye and the brain, where would the contention happen? What would be the function of such a contention in our perception? Continue questioning to bring students to focus on the “thrichromatic & opponent” theories without naming them. Opening the floor to students prior written questions to continue the conversation and guide the inquiry until the class comes up with their own theories that are close enough to the actual theories		Classroom Concept Demo Survey (CCDS): Students feedback on concepts, ill-structured problems, and their curiosity
							Ill-structured problems: Reflection on assumptions, strategies and reasonableness of answers

Table

Emphasis	Reasoning and critical thinking which usually requires some direction from the instructor
What is required of the student?	Demonstration of understanding and ability to apply the information (students describe, compare, contrast, rephrase, summarize, explain, translate, interpret or provide an example)
What Cognitive Operations are involved?	Explaining, stating relationships, comparing, and contrasting
What typifies these questions?	Students will look for evidence to support their response, and may break ideas, situations or events down into their component parts
Signal Phrases	Why, how and in what ways
Example	“In what way do plant cells differ from animal cells?”
Aligned to Bloom’s taxonomy of learning	Comprehension and application levels
Pros	Helps students to make connections between facts and begin to understand relationships. Fosters critical thinking and skills such as comparing and contrasting
Cons	Can lead to digressions in lesson plan, answers are longer and more elaborate and may not be easily anticipated by teacher

Table

Emphasis	Memorization, recall, rote drilling
What is required of the student?	Recall or recognize information (identify or name, quote or define)
What cognitive Operations are involved?	Call for the transfer of information in predictable ways. Questions at this level will determine if students can organize and select facts as well as state the main ideas
What typifies these questions?	Answers are easily anticipated by the teacher and are often closed—requiring a “yes” or “no” answer. Questions found at the back of the textbook chapter are typically low-level convergent questions
Signal phrases	Who, what, where, when
Example	“According to our study of plant physiology, what conditions are required for photosynthesis to occur?”
Aligned to bloom’s taxonomy of learning	Knowledge level
Pros	Easy to develop questions and to anticipate student responses, so directing class discussion becomes routine. Helps identify students with large deficits in general knowledge
Cons	Least effective method for enhancing knowledge transfer. Students who respond correctly may have memorized material but without understanding it

Table

Emphasis	Synthesis of information and analysis of information to develop response
What is required of the student?	Think critically about information, ideas, opinions. Students discover motives, reasons or causes, draw conclusions, inferences or generalizations
What cognitive Operations are involved?	Hypothesizing, reconstructing
What typifies these questions?	Questions that ask students to think of alternative ways of doing something, or require them to synthesize a number of elements to create an original idea
Signal phrases	How could …, What are some possible consequences …, Imagine…
Example	“How might life be different if peace was declared in the middle east?”
Aligned to bloom’s taxonomy of learning	Analysis level
Pros	Focuses on critical thinking skills and allows for in-depth student discussions. May lead to more student-generated questions and conversations thus engaging the learner at a deeper level
Cons	More difficult for teachers to determine in what direction the lesson might be drawn. Requires more pre-planning, energy and effort on behalf of the instructor

Table

Emphasis	Motivate students to higher levels of thinking and encourage creative thinking
What is required of the student?	Students produce original communications, make predictions, propose. Solutions, create, solve lifelike problems, speculate, construct, devise, synthesize, develop/judge ideas, problems solutions, express opinions, and make choices and decisions
What Cognitive Operations are involved?	Predicting, inferring, performs original, creative and evaluative thinking
What typifies these questions?	Teachers are required to think of the content they are presenting I different ways by creating different contexts for learning the material
Signal Phrases	Defend, Judge, Predict, If … then, Can you create, What is your opinion …
Example	“Suppose you are the President of USC. How would you devise a plan to increase the retention rate of minority first-year students?”
Aligned to Bloom’s taxonomy of learning	Synthesis & Evaluation Levels
Pros	Stimulate knowledge-seeking and hypothesis generation.
Cons	Difficult and more energy intensive. Teacher must challenge his or her own way of thinking and encourage the learner to as well. More difficult to assign grades as the responses to these questions may be highly original or personal

Table

Phrasing	Teacher communicates the question so that the students understand the response expectation (i.e.: no run-on questions)
Adaptation	Teacher adapts the question being asked to fit the language and ability level of the students
Sequencing	Teacher asks the questions in a patterned order indicating a purposeful questioning strategy
Balance	Teacher asks both convergent and divergent questions and balances the time between the two types. The teacher uses questions at an appropriate level or levels to achieve the objectives of the lesson
Participation	Teacher uses questions to stimulate a wide range of student participation, encouraging responses from volunteering and non-volunteering students, redirects initially asked questions to other students
Probing	Teacher probes initial student answers, and encourages students to complete, clarify, expand or support their answers
Wait Time (Think Time)	Teacher pauses three to five seconds after asking a question to allow students time to think. The teacher also pauses after students’ initial responses to questions in class
Student Questions	Teacher requires students to generate questions of their own

Crogman, H., & Trebeau Crogman, M. (2016). Generated questions learning model (GQLM): Beyond learning styles. Cogent Education, 3(1), 1202460. doi:10.1080/2331186X.2016.1202460

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Crogman, T. H., Trebeau Crogman, A. M., Warner, L., Mustafa, A., & Peters, R. (2015). Developing a new teaching paradigm for the 21st century learners in the context of socratic methodologies. British Journal of Education, Society & Behavioural Science, 9, 62–95. doi:10.9734/BJESBS/2015/17825

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