Documentation:Course Design Intensive/Facilitators Guidebook/Essential Questions

What Are Essential Questions?

Essential questions open up thinking and possibilities to everyone - they suggest a need to focus on reasoning rather than the right or wrong answer. Wiggins and McTighe propose four different meanings to the term essential. They are:

questions that could occur throughout our lives - they tend to be broad and timeless. For example: "What is justice?" "How do we predict?" "What counts as truth?"
questions that link to core ideas or big questions within a discipline
helps learners effectively inquire and make sense of core concepts and ideas. For example: In what ways does light act like a wave? How do the best writers hook and hold their audience? What models best describe a design process?
They are accessible, thought provoking and challenging.

Essential questions can be framed around 4 categories: key concepts; purpose and value; strategy and tactics; context of use. (Wiggins and McTighe, p. 113) For example:

How do you know, judge, assess...? (key concept)
Why does ...matter? (purpose and value)
What approaches support...are suited to...? (strategy)
When should you use....? (context)

Criteria

Intent is everything when it comes to developing essential questions. What sort of exploration is intended by the question? Wiggins and McTighe deem a question essential if it meets the following criteria:

causes genuine and relevant inquiry into big ideas and core content.
provokes deep thought, sustained inquiry, lively discussion, new understanding and more questions.
requires students to consider alternatives, weigh evidence, support their ideas and justify their answers.
stimulates ongoing rethinking of big ideas, assumptions, prior learning.
sparks meaningful connections with prior learning and personal experiences.
naturally recur, creating opportunities for transfer to other contexts.

Examples

What is the pattern and how do you know? (Mathematics)"
How do scientists prove things?
Who should lead?
In what ways does the medium influence the message? (Digital Humanities)
In what ways does art reflect as well as shape culture?
Whose perspective matters and why?
How do we evaluate credibility?
To what extent do we need checks and balances on government power?
Why is transparency in decision making important in business?
How does scientific understanding evolve?
How is our food security threatened?
How does food science benefit corporations?

Reference

Reference: Understanding by Design by G. Wiggins, J. McTighe 2nd ed. 2006. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development: Alexandria, VA.