Teaching Political Science Sections

Asking Questions

Bloom (1956) developed a taxonomy of six types of questions you can ask, each demands something different of the student. In order of difficulty, they include those designed to test memory, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. Start with the easy ones, demand more of your students as the quarter progresses. Ask questions that will elicit the information or concepts you want them to learn. Bear in mind that students are more likely to retain information if they articulate it - rather than hearing you articulate it. This is the difference between active and passive learning. Active works better!

The first week you might ask questions that test their memory or knowledge by eliciting responses that include facts in the reading that are important. Use, for example, questions that begin with "list, describe, or state…".

The second week you may want to ask questions that require them to focus on the arguments they will need to be able to summarize. Questions that will require the student to illustrate comprehension often begin with "explain, summarize, or describe".

When you feel that the students can generally isolate the important facts and succinctly summarize an author’s argument, you can move on to the application of concepts to different contexts. Key words include "illustrate, expand, and extend".

Analysis...

...requires that students break a question or problem into component parts, review or solve each part, and look at the relationship among the parts. Key words include "diagram, differentiate, compare and contrast, analyze"

Synthesis...

...requires that students combine two or more elements into a new combination or set of relationships. Key words include "predict" and "integrate".

Evaluation...

...requires that students make judgements about how closely something matches some standard or criteria such as logical consistency or explanation. Criticize, defend or evaluate are the key words in this category – and those most likely to appear on their exams! This is really where you want to go – at least eventually. One of your most important goals must be to use this type of question to help them prepare for the midterm and final exams. This is the stuff of political science.

Don’t be afraid of silence

After you have asked a question give students time to answer it - if they appear stumped try rephrasing the question.

Your job is, in part, to teach students how to ask questions – and they will learn by following your lead. If they can ask the right questions they’re half-way to becoming political scientists, and most of the way toward critical thinking!