The pursuit of knowledge is built on the asking of questions.

The development of understanding, the expression of beauty and the search for meaning are predicated on questions.

Questions formulate – sometimes baldly, sometimes badly, sometimes in a manner which transforms thinking beyond all recognition – the curiosity that shapes us as human beings; that inward urge to know, to understand and to come to terms with.

A question is like an arrow that points towards the future.

It directs us to an end.

It informs the means by which we seek to act or think.

These aspects of questioning can be harnessed for use in the classroom.

Consider the following examples:

• 1.1 Lesson Title: The effect of pollution on cities

• 1.2 Lesson Title: If cities breathe, do their lungs get clogged?

• 2.1 Activity Title: Essay Writing

• 2.2 Activity Title: Why write essays?

Questions can be used to frame lessons or individual activities.

In so doing, the teacher is invoking a sense of enquiry with which to direct and inspire their students.

In 1.1, there is the intimation that we will be working through information and ideas connected to the title. In 1.2, there is the indication that we will be trying to answer the question.

The information and ideas we work through will be harnessed so we can attempt to reach a conclusion. There is a greater sense of purpose and endeavour in the second formulation. The sentence is transformed from passive to active.

In 2.1 and 2.2, the activity title journeys from being a straight indication of what content is likely to follow, to a question that aims to get at the very core of the issue.

Both will result in students learning about essay writing.

Both might even contain identical content.

The second, however, frames it around an active analysis – at the end of the lesson students will be able to judge their success by considering whether or not they can answer the question.

We might like to conceive of this idea of using questions to frame lessons and activities as a retreat from the notion of a title.

A title is a name or a descriptive heading.

Something that signals what is to come but is, of itself, in the classroom, essentially procedural.

A question is not a title – it is a question; a question in place of a title; a question replacing a title.

Questions command a response and indicate reciprocity.

Questions framed in the manner of 1.2 and 2.2 point to something that is at issue, that needs to be resolved, investigated, examined or assessed.

They give a lesson or an activity a clear purpose beyond the underlying point of ‘being at school to learn’.

They provide something the whole class – teacher included – can work towards. That is, the finding of an answer.

In addition, the replacing of a title with a question can make it easier to delineate between different activities and different lessons.

This is because a conclusion can be signalled through discussion of what an appropriate answer might be (or through writing down appropriate answers).

This is like drawing the enquiry to a close. It provides an endpoint which is clear, succinct and meaningful.