The Right Question Institute

11/06/2025

Being intentional and strategic about questioning, questioning norms in different cultures, the power dynamics that often underpin questioning ... these and other topics were part of a great conversation RQI's Sarah Westbrook had with the Learning Vibes Podcast. You can listen here (the conversation begins around minute 09:40):

Learning Vibes Podcast

09/24/2025

Thank you Curated Questions for this thought-provoking and wide ranging conversation about the empowering nature of questions — in people's personal lives, in our democracy, and elsewhere. The conversation raised its own questions, including from Ken Woodward, the host, who asks of listeners: "Instead of providing answers or asking all the questions yourself, how could you teach others to formulate their own powerful questions?" Definitely worth a listen. Thank you.

09/24/2025

Asking questions is an essential — yet often overlooked — lifelong learning skill. It allows young people to think critically about the world around them, feel greater power and self-efficacy at school, and become more confident and ready to participate in civic life. Join the Right Question Institute and the Harvard Graduate School of Education this October for our online class, Teaching Students to Ask Their Own Questions: Best Practices in the Question Formulation Technique. Register by October 3.

Explore our programs — offering exceptional academic preparation, opportunities for growth, and the tools to make an impact.

09/18/2025

RQI's Empowerment Program will be presenting at the Urban Alliance for Adult Literacy's Greenhouse Webinar Series on Tuesday, September 23, at 1 p.m., Eastern time.

The Urban Alliance for Adult Literacy, a U.S. national project of ProLiteracy Worldwide, provides support for urban adult foundational education (AFE) coalitions.

Register at this link:

Presenters: Luz Santana | Co-Founder & Co-Director for Democracy Building Program Naomi Campbell | Director, Legal Empowerment Program [email protected] Keila Perez | Program Associate, Legal Empowerment Program [email protected] Description: The Right Question Institute (...

09/16/2025

One of the most thought-provoking sessions in this year’s W.O.R.K. (Workforce Opportunities through Research & Knowledge) Program at the was a workshop led by The Right Question Institute.

The organization empowers people to ask better questions and take an active role in decisions that affect them. During the session, high school students learned the Question Formulation Technique (QFT), a framework that encourages curiosity and sharpens critical thinking.

After a brief training, students applied the QFT to two real-world prompts: the first day in the workplace and improving their neighborhood.

09/16/2025

This is a powerful example of combining the Question Formulation Technique with primary sources and a digital learning experience (from the National September 11 Memorial & Museum) to address a difficult subject and create space for students to ask questions and seek answers. Thank you for sharing Hibernian Private School!

09/04/2025

The Question Formulation Technique lesson planning workbook is one of our most popular (and free) tools for educators. However, after years of service it needed a tune-up. So, we recently updated it. Among other things, it now has a new look and some additional tips and resources. It comes in a few different formats, including a fillable PDF version. It walks you through each step of planning a QFT lesson: naming teaching and learning goals, creating an effective Question Focus, designing lesson instructions, and planning logistics. It also includes tips and principles for facilitating the QFT lesson. Here it is:

The Lesson Planning Workbook will help you design a lesson with the QFT. You will identify teaching and learning goals, consider how students’ questions may be used, design a Question Focus (QFocus), develop prioritization instructions, and create reflection questions.

07/31/2025

As we head into August: Patty Gómez, a department chair at a South Florida school, used the Question Formulation Technique with colleagues to enhance teamwork and have productive group decision-making sessions about student assessment practices. “It really leads to a mindset change,” she said of the process.

When Patty Gómez transitioned from a career in material science engineering into K-12 education twenty […]

07/24/2025

How a ghost writer — who's worked on national best sellers — gets her interview subjects to open up and tell their stories: "I'll start with the questions" ... "Ask a question, and then just listen."

How does a ghost writer get to the juiciest heart of their subject? Laura Zigman is the author of six novels and has ghostwritten and/or collaborated on multiple memoirs and non-fiction books. We have fun talking about writing with someone -- not about them -- and getting their voice right; the line...

07/17/2025

How to you help students prepare themselves for anything? One way: Teach them how to ask questions. As Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana write in their book, Make Just One Change, "They will be better equipped to become successful, self-directed, lifelong learners. We can look forward to what we learn from them as they carry on researching, creating, building, problem solving, and thinking of timeless questions that still need to be answered and new questions that have not yet been asked."

07/10/2025

Promoting students' ability to formulate questions in the classroom has a lot of benefits, according to the research. For those of you who are curious, we've compiled a short roundup of some recent research connected to question-asking in learning environments.

Research on the Impact of Student Questions on Learning Field(s): Teaching + Learning Type: Experts in the Field What happens when students are taught to ask better questions?  The Right Question Institute (RQI) is a nonprofit organization with a mission to democratize access to the skill of asking...

06/18/2025

Asking questions is an essential — yet often overlooked — lifelong learning skill. It allows young people to think critically about the world around them, feel greater power and self-efficacy at school, and become more confident and ready to participate in civic life. Join the Right Question Institute and the Harvard Graduate School of Education this July for our online class, Teaching Students to Ask Their Own Questions: Best Practices in the Question Formulation Technique. Register by July 1.

Explore our programs — offering exceptional academic preparation, opportunities for growth, and the tools to make an impact.