Research Blog Post #2- Closed and Open-Ended Questions

 In chapter 2 of "Rigor By Design, Not Chance", Hess discusses the widely known and highly discussed topic of questioning, and specifically takes time to address both closed and open ended questions and how they are important to students’ understanding. Both types of questioning are important to give to students, but for very different reasons. 

Closed questions, although often referred to as “basic”, are necessary in order to ensure that students are gaining the necessary knowledge they need in order to engage in different types of learning activities that contribute to their understanding of academic content and skills. Hess (2017) goes on to further explain closed questions by stating, “teachers plan their lessons to include “hinge” questions to get on-the-spot evidence about what students do and don't understand to determine who is and isn’t ready to move on or who may need additional support and practice” (p.74). This shows the importance of closed questions by explaining that using closed questions can be a great way for teachers to use data obtained from closed questions to plan instruction effectively, including supports for struggling students such as small group instruction, and challenges for students who are ready for more rigorous learning experiences. On the other hand, Hess also discussed the negatives surrounding closed questions. Hess (2017) states, “The greatest limitation of closed questions is that even when students produce the correct answer, it’s unclear whether they know more than what we asked for” (p. 75). When using closed questions, teachers are only getting the surface-level information about students’ understandings, so closed questions should only be used as a stepping stone into deeper explorations of academic content.

Hess goes on to discuss open-ended questions and how they contribute to deeper understandings for students. She starts off by saying, “Open-ended and more rigorous questions uncover important misconceptions and push students to think outside of the box using divergent thinking, building on foundational knowledge” (Hess, 2017, p. 76). This is the point during instruction that the teachers use their new understandings of students gained from closed questions, to now support them in a way that allows them to explore deeper concepts in their learning. With open-ended questions, students are asked to use reason in their responses which means they are able to be more reflective thinkers and they can now show their understandings beyond the surface level. Because open-ended questions are more difficult, they require more time, effort, and thought for both teachers and students. Teachers need to focus on developing thoughtful questions and students need to focus on answering thoughtfully. Hess later goes on to expand on open-ended questions by describing the planning process for different depth of knowledge (DOK) levels. When planning questions, it is important to consider students’ backgrounds, experiences, and prior knowledge. A great way to support students is by asking open-ended questions that expand on prior learning and background knowledge so that students can deepen their understanding over time. “Rigor by Design, Not Chance” discusses how learners gain new insights and understandings by making connections and integrating new knowledge into existing understandings (Hess, 2017, p.79). Giving students the opportunity to make connections helps them to deepen their understandings and it allows teachers to guide student inquiry. Overall, open-ended questions are important so that students are able to expand their depth of knowledge.

Although I agree that open-ended questions are very important, Hess also helped me to understand the importance of closed questions. In my research, I found it difficult to find an article that addresses both ways of questioning and why they should BOTH be used. After some time exploring different articles, I found one that did a great job of connecting to Hess’ ideas. The article I discovered by Johnathan Sandling discusses both closed and open-ended questions, what they are, how they are helpful, as well as the disadvantages of both. Sandling starts off by discussing the purpose of both closed and open ended questions, just as Hess does. Closed questions are often “yes” or “no” questions and there is only one right answer. In contrast to closed questions, open-ended questions there is not a single right answer but many different answers that invite students to provide a rationale behind their answer. 

Sandling goes on to discuss closed questions in detail. Closed questions can be a great way to obtain baseline information about where students are at in terms of their understanding of different concepts. Hess did a great job explaining how closed questions can be used to plan for further instruction. I like how Sandling expanded on this idea by including that closed questions don’t have to only be used at the end of a unit, but can be used at any time as a “check for understanding” about information that is being taught to ensure that students are retaining important information that can later be expanded upon.

Some examples of closed questions from the article include:

• What year did the First World War begin?

• What is the square root of 36?

• What is a proton?

• When did Hawaii become a state of the USA?

• When would you use a semicolon?

• Who was the first person to walk on the moon?

• When did the Titanic sink?

• Who is the current Prime Minister in the UK?

• Who wrote To Kill A Mockingbird?

• (Sandling, 2022)

Similarly to Hess, Sandling addressed both positives and negatives of closed questions that can be seen in the chart below:

Pros:	Cons:
Easy for students to answer.	Students with no prior knowledge or opinion will not be able to answer.
Easy to analyze responses.	If a yes or no answer is required a student could guess correctly and the teacher would believe them to understand the topic.
Limit the use of irrelevant or ambiguous responses.	Do not allow students an opportunity to explain or elaborate on their answer.
Accessible for students as they require lower-order thinking skills.	Students are forced to respond in a pre-determined way and their preferred answer may not be an option.
Provide an opportunity for the teacher to check learning.	Student may provide simplistic responses to complex topics.
Quick and easy to administer for the teacher.	Do not provide students with opportunities for new learning, only opportunities to recall existing knowledge.

From the chart, I noticed that Sandling and Hess both agree that a big negative for closed questions is that they don’t allow students to explain or elaborate on their answers. I found it interesting that Sandling came up with even more deficits for closed questions than I had thought. One that stuck out to me was, “Students with no prior knowledge or opinion will not be able to answer” (Sandling, 2022). This made me think about my own teaching in a deeper way. I thought about how Hess discussed that it is important to consider students’ backgrounds, experiences, and prior knowledge when questioning. Sandling expanded on this idea by telling us that students will not be able to answer closed questions, if they do not already have the necessary background knowledge in order to do so. For example, in order for students to know when the Titanic sank, they would have to know what the Titanic is. We cannot expect students to answer closed questions, unless they have background knowledge. Adding on to the benefits I previously wrote about from Hess, Sandling’s chart addresses additional important benefits of closed questions. One shared idea that the two authors have is that closed questions are a great way to check for understanding. One additional idea that stood out to me from Sandling is that closed questions are more accessible for students, as they require lower-order thinking skills. This made me think about how this connects to students with learning disabilities. I have been learning about the Ohio Learning Standards-Extended and how these standards are designed for students with disabilities. With these standards, the complexity of the standard goes from most complex to least complex. Students with disabilities often have lower-order thinking skills and closed questions may be more appropriate for them which would be less complex and would better align with the Ohio Learning Standards- Extended. 

Here is a link to the Ohio Learning Standards- Extended:

https://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Special-Education/Ohios-Learning-Standards-Extended 

Here, you can explore the website and notice that Complexity Level C is the least complex, and students who are in that complexity level for certain standards potentially will only be able to answer closed questions.

Moving on, open-ended questions are also addressed within the article. Open ended questions, just like closed questions, can also be used to check for understanding. The main and huge difference here is that open-ended questions promote further thinking, have multiple answers that would be considered “correct”, AND, they express their reasoning for their answers. Something that Sandling discusses that Hess didn’t necessarily touch on is the idea that open-ended questions would be beneficial when teaching lessons that potentially could have a “debate”. As we know, there is no one right answer for open-ended questions, so engaging students in a debate would give them a great opportunity to contribute their thoughts and opinions on certain topics, while explaining their answers, of course. I found this interesting because this is a great way to get students engaged in their own learning and it allows them to show their passion, while also deepening their understanding. This is something that I have done in my classroom that I would like to do more of because I know how important it is for students to connect with the content they are learning. This is one benefit of using open-ended questions.

Some examples of open-ended questions include:

• Why do we need leaders?

• Why do people live near volcanoes?

• Why did the UK vote in favor of Brexit?

• How can we reduce our carbon footprint?

• What qualities would make you a good citizen?

• What does it mean to be powerful?

• What are the most important factors for a good friendship?

• (Sandling, 2022)

Just as Sandling did for closed questions, he also provided a chart with the positives and negatives of open-ended questions which you can see below:

Pros:	Cons:
They allow a potentially unlimited number of possible responses.	Students can fail to make a clear point as they offer too much detail and elaboration.
They allow complex topics to be explored in richer detail.	Variation in responses can potentially be difficult to analyze and summarize.
They promote higher-order thinking skills.	Questions are less accessible for students who find it difficult to use higher-order thinking skills.
They provide opportunities for new learning.	More time needs to be allocated for thinking, responding and discussion.
As there is no single correct answer students are comfortable to provide a response.	Some students can find these questions intimidating, particularly if others disagree with their own perspective.
Allow students to explain, justify and elaborate on their answer.	More challenging for the teacher to check learning and understanding due to the variety and subjectivity of student responses.

From the chart, I noticed that Hess and Sandling both agree that open-ended questions are beneficial because they prompt students to explain and justify their answers which promotes higher-order thinking. One “pro” that stood out to me was that, “(Open-ended questions) allow a potentially unlimited number of possible responses” (Sandling, 2022). I found this interesting because it made me think about how students can all be right, even if they all give different answers. So if you think about it, you could give students an open-ended question and they could potentially ALL answer it differently, and still ALL get it right. This is interesting because you don’t always think about how many answers there can be to a question and as a teacher, I have come to understand that students can surprise you with how much they know, and that can be done through open-ended questions. Another idea that made me think harder was how Sandling included a “con” that stated, “Some students can find these questions intimidating, particularly if others disagree with their own perspective” (Sandling, 2022). I didn’t think about this at first. As teachers, it is important for us to understand our students and make sure that we are setting clear expectations and we need to make sure to create a learning environment that is accepting of students’ diverse views. That way students feel welcomed to share their thoughts, not afraid.

Overall, Hess and Sandling both made great points about closed and open-ended questions and the positive and negative aspects of both. The information I learned through this research, I can now use as I continue my career as an educator.

References:

Hess, K. (2023). Rigor by Design, Not Chance: Deeper Thinking Through Actionable Instruction and Assessment. ASCD

Ohio’s Learning Standards- Extended. Ohio Department of Education. (n.d.). https://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Special-Education/Ohios-Learning-Standards-Extended 

Open and Closed Questions for Teachers: Examples, Explanations, Pros and Cons. JONATHAN SANDLING. (2022, October 16). https://jonathansandling.com/open-and-closed-questions-for-teachers/