How Do I Engage Students in Asking Their Own Questions?

Engaging students in asking their own questions does not happen by telling them to “be curious.” It happens through specific, repeatable teacher moves that show students their questions are useful for figuring things out.

In KnowAtom classrooms, student questions are not enrichment or discussion extras. They are essential tools students use to make sense of phenomena, decide what to investigate, and refine explanations. This article focuses explicitly on how teachers can engage students in questioning through concrete instructional moves that shift ownership of thinking to students.

This builds on earlier articles in this pillar, including Why Does KnowAtom Emphasize Releasing Responsibility in Learning?, How Do I Release Responsibility to Students Without Losing Control?, and Who’s Responsible for the Learning?.

Step 1: Start by teaching students what questions are for

Many students believe questions exist to show what they know or to get approval from the teacher. If that belief goes unaddressed, students will ask safe, surface-level questions or wait for the teacher to ask all of them.

A powerful way to engage students in questioning is to explicitly teach the purpose of questions early in the year.

How to do this without adding a new routine

Use a short, one-time experience early in the year, anchored in a real KnowAtom phenomenon. Some teachers use elements of the Question Formulation Technique (Rothstein & Santana, 2011) for this purpose, not as a recurring protocol, but as an orientation to student agency.

What the teacher does:

1. Present a phenomenon from an early unit without explanation.
2. Ask students to generate questions about what they notice.
3. Select a small number of student questions and ask:
   • “What kind of answer would this question lead to?”
   • “Would this help us observe more carefully, explain what’s happening, or decide what to test?”
4. Revise one question together so it better supports figuring something out.

What the teacher avoids:

• Ranking questions as good or bad
• Turning question types into academic categories
• Using the activity as a compliance exercise

What students learn:

• Questions shape thinking
• Different questions serve different purposes
• Questions can be improved to help learning move forward

This creates a shared reference point the teacher can return to all year:
“Which kind of question do we need right now to help us figure this out?”

Step 2: Direct questions to specific students to signal genuine interest

Once students understand that questions matter, teachers engage questioning by how they address students in the moment.

Asking questions into the air invites volunteers. Directing a question to a specific student signals that the teacher is interested in that student’s thinking, not fishing for a correct answer.

How to do this effectively

Teacher move:

• Make eye contact.
• Address the student by name.
• Reference something the student did or noticed.
• Ask a question about their reasoning or curiosity.

What this replaces:

• “Does anyone know…?”
• “Who can tell me…?”

Why it works:
Students are more willing to ask and respond to questions when they feel seen as thinkers rather than evaluated as answer-givers.

Across grade spans

• Kindergarten (Making Things Move):
  “I noticed you changed the ramp height. What were you wondering when you did that?”
• Grades 1–2 (Changing Seasons):
  “You pointed to the shorter shadow. What question did that raise for you?”
• Grades 3–5 (Sound Waves):
  “You adjusted the string tension differently. What were you trying to figure out?”
• Grades 6–8 (Climate and Human Activity):
  “You paused before sharing your conclusion. What question were you still holding?”

Step 3: Follow up on student ideas the way you would with an adult

Engaging students in questioning depends on what happens after a student responds. When teachers ask a single question and move on, students learn that their thinking is disposable.

To engage questioning, teachers ask follow-up questions that respond directly to what the student just said.

How to ask productive follow-up questions

Teacher move:

• Listen for the idea behind the response.
• Ask a question that helps the student clarify, extend, or test that idea.

Common follow-ups include:

• “What makes you think that?”
• “What evidence are you using?”
• “What’s still unclear to you?”
• “What question does that raise next?”

Why it works:
Students experience questioning as part of thinking, not as a performance cycle.

Across grade spans

• Kindergarten (Living Things Change):
  “What do you think the plant is doing that makes you say that?”
• Grades 1–2 (Animal Behaviors):
  “How could we tell if that’s really what’s happening?”
• Grades 3–5 (Energy Transfers):
  “What’s different between this trial and the last one?”
• Grades 6–8 (From Molecules to Organisms):
  “What questions does that explanation still leave unanswered?”

Step 4: Frame questions as tools for figuring out, not for knowing

Even when students ask questions, they may still treat them as signs of confusion or weakness. Teachers engage questioning by consistently framing questions as productive tools.

How to reinforce this framing

Teacher moves that help:

• Model genuine questions aloud:
  “I’m not sure yet, so I’m wondering…”
• Treat unanswered questions as valuable:
  “Let’s keep that question visible.”
• Return to earlier questions after investigations:
  “Did this help us answer the question we started with?”

What this replaces:

• Answering student questions immediately
• Treating questions as problems to resolve quickly

Across grade spans

• Kindergarten:
  “That’s a question we can keep exploring tomorrow.”
• Grades 1–2:
  “That question will help us decide what to test next.”
• Grades 3–5:
  “Let’s see if our model helps us answer that.”
• Grades 6–8:
  “Scientists still debate this. What evidence could help?”

Step 5: Watch for signs that questioning is becoming student-owned

Teachers know these moves are working when they begin to see:

• Students asking questions without prompting
• Questions becoming more precise and evidence-based
• Students revisiting earlier questions to revise explanations
• Students asking questions of one another during investigations and discourse

They indicate that responsibility for learning is moving to students.

These shifts align with How do thinking moves deepen student engagement in KnowAtom lessons? and How can formative assessment help us understand whether releasing responsibility is actually working?. They indicate that responsibility for learning is moving to students.

The teacher’s role: designing conditions where questions do real work

Engaging students in asking their own questions does not mean stepping back. It means acting deliberately as a listener, connector, and steward of inquiry.

By teaching students what questions are for, directing attention to student thinking, following up authentically, and framing questions as tools for figuring out, teachers help students experience science as it is practiced: driven by curiosity, evidence, and shared sensemaking.

References

• Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (2000). How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. National Academies Press.
• Ritchhart, R. (2015). Creating Cultures of Thinking: The 8 Forces We Must Master to Truly Transform Our Schools. Jossey-Bass.
• Rothstein, D., & Santana, L. (2011). Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions. Harvard Education Press.