Students generating questions as a way of learning

Abstract

Student question generation is a constructive strategy that enriches learning, yet is hardly practiced in higher education. The study described here presents a potential model for integrating student question generation into an education setting. In all, 133 students generated questions in groups, answered and assessed the questions of their peers. Comparison of the examination grades before and after question generation found that the activity did not result in a statistically significant improvement in achievements. However, a comparison of only the achievements in answering the higher-order thinking questions revealed an improvement in the students’ ability to cope with these types of question. Moreover, the students reported advantages, such as reduction of test anxiety, productive group learning and the creation of a question bank resulting from the activity, which helped the students study for the examination. The educational implications of the findings are discussed.

Integration of good practices of active methodologies with the reuse of student-generated content

“…The creation of SGQs requires metacognitive strategies because creating questions requires locating materials that are considered important and relevant; adequately formulating questions; providing multiple responses or alternative answers; carefully formulating questions to address and evaluate specific learning outcomes; answering the questions that are generated; forging links between the current study material and previously learned subjects/units; creating examples of any focal concept; developing plans and strategies to generate questions according to specific criteria; monitoring one's understanding; modifying plans and/or strategies to correct unsatisfactory learning in the generation of questions; and assessing one's understanding of the study material (Yu & Wu, 2016). SGQs also help teachers assess the quality of students' knowledge and reveal what students have learned, and uncover misunderstandings (Aflalo, 2018). ICTs also enable the collection and assessment of such information with tools such as PeerWise (Kay, Hardy, & Galloway, 2018).…”

“…ICTs also enable the collection and assessment of such information with tools such as PeerWise (Kay, Hardy, & Galloway, 2018). In addition, students can benefit from questions that are answered by their peers and a bank of questions that are available for reviewing knowledge before the exam (Aflalo, 2018). However, not all questions generated are quality questions, as training is required for achieving quality questions.…”

“…The advantages of co-creation range from the design and planning of tasks by students taking higher-level courses to be conducted by students in lower-level courses (Bovill et al, 2016) to specific digital learning objects generally shared with the group, such as glossaries, blogs or wikis (Kalayci & Humiston, 2015;Yang, Guo, & Yu, 2016), concerns or questions (Aflalo, 2018;Yu & Wu, 2016) and videos (Chewar & Matthews, 2016;Orús et al, 2016). Co-creation requires developing higher order skills in Bloom's taxonomy (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001) because it requires deeper metacognitive understanding.…”

Improving Writing Skill with Questioning: A Path on Critical Thinking Skill

“…In order to improve thinking, reasoning, and critical thinking, Aflalo (2018) stated that it is important to develop questioning. The characteristics of questions make the individuals on having the cognitive demand to respond them (TEAL 2013).…”

“…The characteristics of questions make the individuals on having the cognitive demand to respond them (TEAL 2013). The best system for classifying the cognitive level of questions is known with Bloom's Taxonomy proposed in Aflalo (2018) which offers a hierarchy of questions ranging from knowledge questions, expressing the lowest order of thinking, to comprehension questions, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. This Bloom's hierarchical levels is also stated in TEAL (2013) that questions are classified into lower order questions that require students to remember the previous materials teachers gave to them and higher order questions that require students to impose the previous information they have learned to create the answers in logically reasoned evidence.…”