What is an Essential Question? (Adapted from Mathstar.nmsu.edu)
- These are key questions that help to focus the learning.
- Questions that probe for deeper meaning and set the stage for further
questioning foster the development of critical thinking skills and higher
order capabilities such as problem-solving and understanding complex
systems. A good essential question is the principal component of designing
inquiry-based learning.
- What constitutes a good essential question?
- In general, the best essential questions center around major
issues, problems, concerns, interests, or themes relevant to students'
lives and to their communities.
- Good essential questions are open-ended, non-judgmental, meaningful
and purposeful with emotive force and intellectual bite, and invite
an exploration of ideas.
- Good essential questions encourage collaboration amongst students,
teachers, and the community and integrate technology to support
the learning process.
- How do we write good essential questions?
- First, consider the focus of the unit or lesson
activity. Ideas for a good essential question may stem from your
students' particular interests in a topic (e.g. What makes a video
game good?), community resources (How does pollution impact the
Rio Grande River?), local curriculum expectations (e.g. Who was
a great New Mexican leader?), or a topic suggested by the standards
themselves (e.g. Where do waves come from?).
- Then, examine the theme or concept in the curriculum
that must be addressed and brainstorm questions that you or the
students believe would cause them to think about the concept without
dictating the direction or outcome of their thinking (e.g. "Why
is fighting bad?" contains its own answer, namely that fighting
is bad).
- Finally, utilize the six typical queries that
newspaper articles address: Who? What? Where? When? Why? and How?
- How do Unit questions assist the learner? Once an
essential question has been identified and agreed upon by the learners,
the next step might be to formulate a list of related questions that
will assist the learner in answering the essential question. Often embedded
within an essential question are subcategories that will generate questions
that guide the learner's inquiry.
- For example, the essential question "What makes a video game
good?" might lead to subcategories such as graphics, ease of
use, violence, and audience appropriateness, and their subsequent
questions like "How do graphics affect the quality of the game?"
or "How does ease of use contribute to its overall rating?"
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