Hello, Vittoria.

I won’t answer for Elizabeth, but happen to be at my computer.

The basic difference is between a question that is simple to answer, where the emphasis is on finding the ‘right’ information, and a complex question, where the emphasis is on building (constructing) knowledge and understanding from information drawn from different sources.

For example, from an earlier iteration of our Year 9 Inquiry Skills Project, “How accurate is the Doomsday Clock?” rather than “What is the Doomsday Clock?”. The latter question leads almost certainly to information on Wikipedia about the Doomsday Clock directly via Google, which is not necessarily a problem, but is a poor inquiry question because it requires no thought and/ or understanding. The former question requires both thought and understanding, which the inquiry needs to support, both in terms of process and resources, and which, crucially, is what the inquiry is aimed at and needs to assess.

This is deeply linked with the question that you asked about inquiry and constructivism, which requires a fuller response, and which I am working on.

I hope that this helps to clarify.

Darryl

Hello Vittoria

I am sorry I have not responded before now. I have only just seen your question and am pleased that Darryl has done a great job in answering for me. I would have said roughly the same that a ‘googlable’ question is one that takes no thought and creates the opportunity to cut and paste. Whereas a non-googlable question needs thinking about.

Creating a good question is something that I find extremely difficult too so please don’t feel disheartened. I find that this forum is a great place to share your question ideas and get support so as long as you have a starting point it can be shaped. When I talk to teachers about this there is an assumption that adults can think of great questions and our students should be able to do this too but it really is difficult and needs practice. Many teachers get frustrated at the poor questions that their students come up with but ask them to do the same they find that they struggle too…

I run an online forum from my website and back in February we listened to a TEDtalk about critical thinking which links to great questions. You might find the TEDtalk and the follow-up discussion useful