Open-ended Questions Promote Higher Order Thinking

One of the gifts you can give children is allowing them the opportunity to solve problems. Solving problems develops higher order thinking skills.  Children must be given the opportunity to experiment, investigate and solve problems. If you are lucky, they may even fail.

It's OK to Fail

There must be an acceptance that failure is natural in the learning process. Furthermore, failure is actually a springboard to growth and success. Encourage them to experiment, investigate and solve problems. This will ensure you are nurturing the natural curiosity and wonder children have about the world. As a result, you will be giving them the gift of lifelong learning.

Provoke Wonder

Children naturally learn by first having a sense of wonder or interest in something. Then they will explore and experiment. They will discover possibilities and reflect on their observations. Experiment, explore, fail and reflect some more. Consequently, their reflections provoke more interest and wonder and so the cycle continues. Their curiosity leads them to increasingly complex knowledge and sophisticated, higher order thinking.

30 Nature Inspired Question Prompts

These open-ended question prompts will encourage higher order thinking in your children. Higher order thinking is a focus in every curriculum and with every age group. Enrich academic and social learning by encouraging your children’s natural curiosity. These questions tap into that natural curiosity cycle.

I love these cards

I place these cards around my room to prompt my questioning when I’m interacting with the children. They help me to challenge the children to think for themselves. They are also a great reminder for me to invite the children to share their thinking and their view of the world.

It’s important to me to help my children develop higher order thinking skills and to learn in an interesting and engaging way. Sometimes I add beauty and value to a learning centre by including one or two of these open-ended question photos in the provocation. They assist me and other educators in the room to take the learning to the next level.

Using these prompts will demonstrate to your children that you believe that they have worthy ideas, that you expect them to think for themselves and that they can contribute in valuable ways. This then results in a sense of autonomy, belonging, and competence within the child and the classroom community.

I have found these open-ended question prompts to be a valuable and effective learning tool.

Click on the picture below to purchase my 30 Open-ended Question Photos to foster higher order thinking in your classroom.