A Typology of Questions

Bloom's "Taxonomy of Educational Objectives"

A taxonomy of questions, NOT a classification of educational objectives

Bloom's Cognitive Domain Taxonomy

• Knowledge (simple recall)
• Comprehension (familiar with meaning/can make use)
• Application (applying abstraction to a new example)
• Analysis (break idea into constituent parts)
• Synthesis (creation from existing elements or principles)
• Evaluation (formation and substantiation of a judgment)

Not a complete taxonomy of questions

Rhodes' Typology (copyrighted 1995)

• Content-directed questions (intended to obtain information about subject matter)
• Student-directed questions (intended to obtain personal responses from students)
• Rhetorical questions (self-expression, obtain effect, or a means of giving directions)
• Ambiguous questions (intended to obtain information, but the nature of the question is not clear)

Content-directed Questions

• Informational
• Interpretive
• Explanatory
• Procedural
• Relational
• Verificational
• Heuristic
• Evaluational

Informational

Descriptive

• What is it?
• What kind is it?
• Where is it?
• When is it?
• Who is it?

Operational

• How does it work?
• What does it do?

Interpretive

Conceptual

• What does that mean?
• What could that mean?

Authority-related

• What does the writer mean by that?
• What could the writer mean by that?

Explanatory

Causal

• Why does it work that way?
• What is the reason for that?

Teleological

• Why did he do that?
• What was the purpose for that?

Historical

• How did it come to be?
• How has it come to be?

Procedural

Methodological

• What is done?
• What could be done?

Technical

• How is that done?
• Is it done this way?

Relational

Priority

• Which is the most important?
• Is this more important?

Spatial/Temporal

• What is largest?
• Which came first?

Comparative

• How do these compare?
• How do these contrast?

Verificational

Evidential

• What are the facts to support it?
• Where are the data?

Logical

• Where is the proof?
• What is the reasoning?

Epistemological

• Is this known?
• How is this known?

Heuristic

Speculative

• What would happen if?
• What could happen if?

Investigative

• What could we find out?
• How could we find out?

Evaluational

Normative

• Is it any good?
• How good is it?

Significance

• What difference does it make?
• So what?

Student-directed Questions

• Conceptual (concerned with meaning)
• Purposive (concerned with purpose)
• Cognitive (concerned with thought)
• Affective (concerned with feelings)
• Evaluative (concerned with values)
• Preferential (concerned with likes & dislikes)

Rhetorical Questions

• Imperative (Would you stop talking?)
• Declarative (Isn't that nice?)
• Exclamatory (How could you?)
• Affirmational (Right? Okay?)

Ambiguous Questions

Content/student ambiguity

• Would you explain that? (what or whose explanation?)
• How do we do that? (what or whose procedure?)

Are there any questions? (About what? Whose questions?)

Semantic

• What is your problem?
• Where were you born? (In a barn?)
• How did you get in here? (Though an open window?)
  

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