Students who ask good questions learn better than others: Study

Reading notes, highlighting key passages and underlining important pointers have long been established as effective study strategies yielding best learning outcomes. However, they may be the least effective, according to recent research. A study published in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology reveals that getting students to ask more probing questions about the topics they learn are more effective than the above-mentioned strategies.

For the study, students were divided into two groups. While one group were asked to generate questions about a studied topic, the other group was asked to use passive strategies like going through notes and studying classroom materials. The average score of the first group was 14 per cent higher than the second group. The researchers also found that asking questions not only encouraged deep thinking in students but also enhanced their memory.  

Why is asking questions more effective than other study strategies? 
According to study authors professor Mirjam Ebersbach and her colleagues at the University of Kassel, asking questions about a studied topic involves elaborate analysis. The question-generating process nudges a learner towards more complex aspects of the topic or content he has studied, stimulating a deeper processing and reflection capacity while compared to restudying. While asking questions, students are also able to look into a learned concept through a new prism of contexts, which enhances their retention capacity. Ebersbach and her colleagues are of the opinion that passive strategies like reading or highlighting passages can have a negative impact on the memory as they are superficial. These sub optimal practices, researchers believe, leave the students with an illusion of knowledge making them believe that they have internalized what they have studied. However, it has been found that when asked questions about the topics that they have restudied, learners are often unable to answer those questions.  

Strategies to help learners generate questions 
Certain classroom activities (online or in-person), can help students ask intelligent questions. While guiding them to frame better questions, ask your learners to focus on the most difficult concepts or topics of a lesson and then think of ‘why’ or ‘how’ questions around them. Also, encourage them to try and answer their own questions to check how sound their queries are. Bonus: This exercise leads to deep learning outcomes. Having students organise quiz contests also increases their capacity to frame meaningful questions. A Q&A session with teachers at least every week or twice a month, where the student is an interviewer will also be an interesting way to harness a learner’s questioning skills.