Costa's Levels of Questioning

Now that we're all adults here, or like to believe we are, it's important that we start thinking like one. Smart ones. Not like adults that behave like children and play Call of Duty and eat Takis all day.


Very often, we find ourselves limiting our thinking to basic questions. What did you say? What is this? Where does this go?

If you think of questioning as a form of growing up, think of the kinds of questions you asked as a toddler:  "What is _______?" You may have been very eager to know the names of everything you could point to.

When you grew into your later stages, you may have been extremely interested in understanding the mechanics of the wide wonderful world around you and asked "Why does ______ happen?"

Unfortunately, for many of us, we remained at that level of questioning in our lives, shifting from asking "Why?" to understanding the world towards a "Why?" simply to challenge authority and get out of cleaning our rooms.

You all probably know by this point that I love to ask questions. Ask away. Challenging information and those around you through questioning is at the very foundation of change. But before we get to that stage of life-changing questioning, we need to dial it back to the kinds of questions we'd ask in the classroom.

Costa's levels of questioning help us to place the questions we ask on a scale from lower to higher thinking -the higher you go, of course, the harder your have work that brain. Honestly though, in breaking down these levels, you'll find that you don't even have to break a sweat to begin to ask the more interesting kinds of questions:

Level 1 (the lowest level) requires one to gather information. 
Level 2 (the middle level) requires one to process the information. 
Level 3 (the highest level) requires one to apply the information. 

To better understand the content being presented in their core subject areas, it is essential for students to learn to think critically and to ask higher levels of questions. By asking higher levels of questions, students deepen their knowledge and create connections to the material being presented.

I used this example in class: The Story of How Mr. Rodriguez Ruined his iPhone
By Brian Rodriguez

During school testing, teachers that are not asked to proctor exams are asked to sit in the hallway. They are to sit there in silence and nothing else is to be done. Mr. Rodriguez did not feel like complying with said instructions.

"Screw that," Mr. Rodriguez decided, "I'm playing blackjack!"

And so Mr. Rodriguez continued to sit in the hallway, entertaining himself by practicing how to count cards whilst playing on a blackjack app. Suddenly, he heard footsteps from around the corner, and hid his iPhone on his lap, under his hand. As the footsteps reached the corner, he saw that it was an administrator that was making a round of all of the classrooms testing. Mr. Rodriguez crossed his legs to further obscure the device from sight, and smiled the biggest smile he could smile. When the administrator was out of sight, Mr. Rodriguez let his guard down in relief and uncrossed his legs to return to playing. Upon moving his right leg, however, the iPhone became unstable on his left and fell to the ground.

To Mr. Rodriguez's dismay, upon picking his dropped iPhone from the ground, he noticed that the screen had suddenly turned black and white. 

"What is going with my phone?" Mr. Rodriguez asked inquisitively, as he searched the phone for any damage. There was no visible damage but the screen would not return to normal.

He could still see images clearly, but all of the color had been sucked out of the phone, as if it were something out of Pleasantville. 

"Uh oh!", exclaimed Mr. Rodriguez.

"Uh-oh is right!", responded the administrator, whom had returned and was now looming over Mr. Rodriguez's shoulder.

The End

In this example, watch how the three levels of questioning occur on a natural level:

Level 1: What is wrong with my screen? (The colors are gone)

Level 2: Why would I be able to see images so clearly, but be missing all of the color? (The cable that connects to the screen must be loosened or damaged from within the phone.)

Level 3: Now that I have diagnosed my phone, what option is most cost efficient for fixing my phone (Throw your phone away in the trash and just get a new one, Mr. Rodriguez. You're like two generations of iPhones behind. Get with the times, man.)

Hopefully my example helps to break down the levels of Costa's Questioning more easily for you guys. If not, then at least just understand the struggles I have to deal with on a daily basis with clumsy hands, expensive gadgets, and pressure from administrators.

The common misconception is that Level One questions are to be avoided in favor of sticking to Level Two and Three questions -this couldn't be further from the truth. Level One questions are often necessary to establish the group’s basic understanding of facts or situations. In order to move up towards higher thinking, we often need to make sure that we're on the same page with the basic facts and understandings. You have to know what you're going to be playing with, kids.

Obviously, questioning should not remain in Level One, but should advance to both Level Two and Level Three -to allow for further digestion and processing of the information. In my opinion, Level Three is when you're able to enjoy the information by stretching it and molding it into new questions and applying them to new situations.

We'll find time to play with developing our own questions, as it will help us in our ability to identify these questions when working on tests, discussions, or other assessments.

I personally like to play a modified version of Scattergories:

http://www.hasbro.com/games/swf/scattergories_demo3.swf

I make categories relevant to the reading (i.e. Juana) and assign what level to stick to, in place of assigning a letter to that round. Those who can ultimately stay within the level of questioning assigned, and come up with unique questions, win more points than those who have either submitted a question from the wrong level, or have created too simple of a question.

These levels, like much of the material we've been covering these first couple of weeks, will remain an important aspect of our class, so be sure to be familiar with them.