Question Generation as a Strategy for Advancing Intermediate- and Low-Achieving Students in Higher Education

Abstract

Student question generation (SQG) is a teaching and learning strategy that promotes higher-order cognitive skills. The purpose of this study is to determine which students gain the most from SQG activities: Is it mainly those with strong academic achievements? The study took place over the course of six years, during which 171 preservice teachers in Israel generated, answered, and peer-evaluated questions at higher and lower orders of thinking. When their exam grades before and after the SQG intervention were checked, the intermediate- and low-achieving students showed the most significant improvement. These findings could contribute to a reassessment of commonly held attitudes about the ostensible inability of underachieving students to engage in higher-order thinking tasks.