The Future of Education

Student question generation is a constructive strategy that enriches learning, yet is hardly practiced in higher education. The study described here presents a potential model for integrating student question generation into an education setting. 133 students generated questions in groups, answered and assessed the questions of their peers. Comparison of the examination grades before and after question generation found that, the activity did not result in a statistically significant improvement in achievements. However, a comparison of only the achievements in answering the higher-order thinking questions revealed an improvement in the students’ ability to cope with these types of question. Moreover, the students reported advantages, such as reduction of test anxiety, productive group learning, and the creation of a question bank resulting from the activity, which helped the students study for the examination. The educational implications of the findings are discussed.

Keywords: student questions; question-generation; higher-order questions; active learning; higher education;