How many of you have worked on developing essential questions (EQs) to guide a unit of study? In developing your essential question(s), how many of you have taken the EQs from your provincial curricula or surfed the internet to look at others EQs to acquire ideas? Okay, so how many of you have found WIDE interpretations of what constitutes an essential question? Finally, why do you use essential questions in your planning? Is it to engage students to think critically about the themes, issues, problems that are embedded in your unit of study? Or . . . . . . .

I can say that over my 27-year career as an educator, I would respond yes to the first three questions and the reason why I liked to use EQs was that I saw them as a tool to get students to think more critically about curriculum content. As well, in almost all my curricula, critical thinking was a competency that educators were expected to engender in students. Now, according to Dr Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe who brought essential questions to the forefront in their Understanding by Design publications, the purpose of an essential question is “….. to stimulate thought, to provoke inquiry, and to spark more questions, including thoughtful student questions, not just pat answers. They are provocative and generative”(Wiggins & McTighe, 2013). I don’t think that I am too far off the beaten path when I propose that many essential questions that have been developed over the years have strayed away from this definition. As a result of this reality, I would suggest that uncovering deep understanding, 40-month and 40-year learning, hasn’t been the outcome that educators have been able to hit; and it is NOT due to an eductor’s lack of desire, lack of hard work, or complacency.

I would put propose that EQ users have struggled to hit the mark because the criteria that defines an essential question is very broad and sweeping. As a result, EQs have morphed into many different things to serve different purposes. My purpose for using them was to get kids to think more deeply in a critical manner. I was constantly questioning what I was missing because I was frustrated that my students were not hitting the promised mark of deep understanding in their responses. Students weren’t demonstrating critical thinking in a manner that I hoped they would through the use of a guiding essential question.

I work with great colleagues who I value and respect. It was in one particular discussion that I was challenged to identify clear criteria that would define critical thinking. Reflecting on that moment, I gave a rather vague response that I don’t think would be incredibly different than other teachers (let me know if you disagree). I stated something to the effect that students would work at the higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy, and they would look at picking apart different perspectives. It was at this moment that my lack of understanding became abundantly clear. I didn’t know what criteria comprised critical thinking. If I didn’t know what the criteria were, then how the heck can I accurately assess and coach it?

I began searching for critical thinking resources that would help me improve my critical-thinking pedagogical toolbox. It was in this quest where my learning partnership evolved with Garfield Gini-Newman from the University of Toronto’s – Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. This transformative learning experience has been hands down the most powerful professional development experience of my career. I have developed a deeper understanding of what constitutes critical thinking, learned a variety of instructional practices that engender it, and a framework that facilitates more purposeful scaffolding towards my students demonstrating their degree of critical thinking in authentic summative tasks. This framework also reduces students anxiety by developing pieces of the summative assessment as you are working through the unit. It also facilitates student’s metacognitive development and more purposeful formative feedback by the teacher. I found this framework utilized many of the strengths of the Understanding by Design framework, but zeroed in on making kids think critically to demonstrated 40-month and 40-year learning in a more focused and manageable manner.

So, what criteria defines criteria thinking? Below is Garfield’s response in the enclosed video and a text version of his definition is placed below the video.

A person is thinking critically when one is attempting to assess or judge the merits of possible options in light of relevant factors or criteria.​

Critical thinking is criterial thinking— thinking in the face of criteria.

From Garfield’s mentorship, I have come to learn that a quality critical thinking question or task has 4 key attributes.

FOUR ATTRIBUTES OF A QUALITY CRITICAL THINKING QUESTION OR TASK.

1. Provides or generates PLAUSIBLE OPTIONS (students must identify or consider plausible options)
2. Requires REASONED judgments(s) (students must arrive at judgments, conclusions, decisions that are reasoned using…)
3. Requires the use of RELEVANT criteria for judging/assessing (student must assess options using relevant criteria)
4. Requires the use of APPROPRIATE evidence to support judgment (student must provide appropriate evidence to support their assessment and ultimately their judgment)

Now having clear criteria of what comprises a critical thinking question and task, I realized that Wiggins and McTighe’s essential question criteria are general and not specifically driven to engender critical thinking. This was a Eureka moment! My essential questions landed on students providing opinions from their inquiry BUT opinion responses do not necessarily force students to think critically. As teachers, I believe that we need to understand the purpose different questions serve in our classroom and the impact that they have on student learning. If you are wondering what I mean by the different types of questions and the thinking they lead to, I have placed a video below where Garfield explains these difference and as well I have included few examples in the table below:

Question 1	Question 2	Question 3
Why did the French and other Europeans come to North America, and how did they interact with First? Peoples?	What are your feelings with regards to interactions the French and Europeans had with First Peoples?	Did First People benefit from interactions with Europeans?  Criteria for benefit:  -Increased their safety  -Increased prosperity within their community -Improved life in their families and community -Supported culture and traditions
What are three activities in Vancouver, British Columbia?	Would you like to move to Vancouver?	Would your family’s needs be better met in Vancouver or Kelowna, British Columbia? Criteria for better met: -diverse employment opportunities -excellent public and post-secondary education institutions -wide arrange of indoor and outdoor entertainment opportunities -safe community -community has a close knit feeling
List three types of exercise .​	What is your favourite type of exercise?​	Which sport would best meet the needs of someone with asthma – diving, soccer or tennis?​ Criteria for best meet: -reduced contact with allergens -activities that involve short, intermittent periods of exertion -doesn’t require cold weather

So what type of thinking do Type 1 questions lead to? Type 2? Type 3?

Type 1 is a basic fact-finding mission, which draws upon little to no critical thinking. Type 2 questions are about getting students to provide opinions on what they think. They may or may not have to formulate a plausible answer with appropriate evidence. Thus, teachers should not assume that an opinion response is going to engender student to think critically. Type 3 is structured in a manner that students have to utilize the criteria to make a plausible judgement, weighing the degree of impact each criterion holds and then gathering appropriate evidence to support their judgement based on the degree of impact

The following are the Grade 11 Canadian History Essential Questions found in the Manitoba curriculum document. I am not criticizing the team that developed these question, but what I am trying to point out is that as teachers, we need to examine what type of “thinking” these questions engender for our students and how can we “tweak’ them, as Garfield mentions in the video, to make them more focused in a critical thinking manner?

• What is history, and why do we study it?

• Who were the First Peoples, and how did they structure their world?

• Why did the French and other Europeans come to North America, and how did they interact with First Peoples?

• How did Canada seek to establish economic security and social justice from the period of the Depression tothe patriation of the Constitution?

• How did territorial expansion, immigration, and industrializationchange life for men and women in Canada?

To what degree do essential questions really lead students to think critically?

I would say that most EQs would be low in engaging student in a critical manner. Making a judgement is not a core component of an essential question. Essential questions do not require students to weigh the degree of impact evidence has in light of criteria to formulate a judgement. Most essential questions that I have created or viewed land on Type 1 or 2 question format. Also, I have witnessed the impact of utilizing critical questions criteria in the classroom. Students often struggle at first with critical thinking questions because they demand more thinking and development. Many students are used to fact-finding mission questions OR they are just asked to provide their opinion where they don’t necessarily need to make a judgement. As a result, their thinking often is superficial.

Understanding by Design is a powerful framework for designing curriculum, but what I have learned over time is that for students to walk away with a deep understanding of a curriculum, they need to be engaged in ongoing critical thinking which involved critically designed questions and tasks. As a result, I propose that EQs are not as effective in facilitating deep learning compared to a critical thinking inquiry model.

I look forward to any feedback that you are willing to provide. Have a great day and stay safe!!

Best wishes,
Ingrid

Reference

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2013). What makes an essential question? [Pdf.]. ASCD. http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/109004/chapters/What-Makes-a-Question-Essential%A2.aspx).