{"id":347354,"date":"2025-08-27T02:54:30","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T07:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/27\/what-are-costas-levels-of-questioning\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T02:54:30","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T07:54:30","slug":"what-are-costas-levels-of-questioning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/27\/what-are-costas-levels-of-questioning\/","title":{"rendered":"What Are Costa&#8217;s Levels Of Questioning?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-style-default\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"756\" height=\"567\" alt=\"Costa's levels of questioning\" class=\"wp-image-66386 perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.teachthought.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/What-Are-Costas-Levels-of-Questions-1.png\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"756\" height=\"567\" src=\"https:\/\/www.teachthought.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/What-Are-Costas-Levels-of-Questions-1.png\" alt=\"Costa's levels of questioning\" class=\"wp-image-66386\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>Costa\u2019s Levels of Questioning \u2014 designed by educational researcher Art Costa \u2014 feature three tiers of questioning designed to promote higher-level thinking and inquiry. <\/p>\n<p>Similar to <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.teachthought.com\/learning-posts\/what-is-blooms-revised-taxonomy\/\">Bloom\u2019s taxonomy<\/a><\/strong>, Costa\u2019s lower level prompts students to use more basic faculties; as students move up in levels, the questions prompt them to use more complex thinking skills. Through decades of research on human resilience, Dr. Costa also identified the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.teachthought.com\/pedagogy\/what-are-the-habits-of-mind\/\">16 Habits of Mind<\/a><\/strong>, a set of behaviors that support students in navigating the challenges that often occur in school and life, in general. Several of Dr. Costa\u2019s 16 habits \u2014 thinking interdependently, innovating, gathering data, and applying past knowledge to new situations \u2014 both require and reinforce higher levels of questioning.<\/p>\n<p>There is a substantive amount of research that supports Dr. Costa\u2019s schema. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ascd.org\/el\/articles\/five-standards-of-authentic-instruction\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Newmann <\/a>(1993) found that higher-order thinking compels students to \u201cmanipulate information and ideas in ways that transform their meaning,\u201d and \u201cexpects students to solve problems and develop meaning for themselves,\u201d which aligns with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.teachthought.com\/learning-posts\/constructivism-connectivism\/\"><strong>a constructivist view of education<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Costa\u2019s Levels of Questioning are typically illustrated using the metaphor of a house with three floors:<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-default\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Costa's levels of questioning\" class=\"wp-image-66382 perfmatters-lazy\" width=\"490\" height=\"368\" src=\"https:\/\/www.teachthought.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Costas-levels-of-questions-1.png\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.teachthought.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Costas-levels-of-questions-1.png\" alt=\"Costa's levels of questioning\" class=\"wp-image-66382\" width=\"490\" height=\"368\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-level-1-gathering\"><strong>Level 1:<\/strong> <strong>Gathering<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Level 1 questions mainly require students to work with information \u2018on the page.\u2019 Answers to level 1 questions are typically literal; meaning, a student can literally point to the answer on a page. <\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve previously written about<a href=\"https:\/\/www.teachthought.com\/critical-thinking-posts\/blooms-taxonomy-verbs\/\"> <strong>Bloom\u2019s Taxonomy power verbs<\/strong><\/a>, so you can predict that Costa\u2019s levels have their own set of power verbs, as well. Here are a few that you might find at the start of Level 1 questions:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Define<\/li>\n<li>Describe<\/li>\n<li>Memorize<\/li>\n<li>Label<\/li>\n<li>Identify<\/li>\n<li>List<\/li>\n<li>Observe<\/li>\n<li>Restate<\/li>\n<li>Rewrite<\/li>\n<li>Repeat<\/li>\n<li>Name<\/li>\n<li>State<\/li>\n<li>Recall<\/li>\n<li>Recite<\/li>\n<li>Locate<\/li>\n<li>Select<\/li>\n<li>Match<\/li>\n<li>Show<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Level 1 questions by content area might look like these examples:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Science<\/strong>: <em>Label <\/em>the parts of an animal cell.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Math<\/strong>: <em>Recite<\/em> the formula for finding the volume of a cylinder.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Social Studies<\/strong>: <em>Match<\/em> the name of the monarch to their respective country.<\/li>\n<li><strong>English Language Arts<\/strong>: <em>Locate<\/em> the place in the plot where the climax occurs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You can see how most of these Level 1 power verbs require students to recall information, which is an important skill in its own right. Nonetheless, teachers should strive for the majority of their questions to fall in Level 2 or 3, which challenge students to use higher-order thinking skills. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Level 2:<\/strong> <strong>Processing<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Level 2 questions go a step further than Level 1, prompting students to process information by \u2018reading between the lines.\u2019 While students may need to use literal information to formulate their responses, Level 2 requires them to process that information with what they already know in order to make new connections. <\/p>\n<p>Here are some examples of Level 2 power verbs:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Compare<\/li>\n<li>Contrast<\/li>\n<li>Classify<\/li>\n<li>Sort<\/li>\n<li>Distinguish<\/li>\n<li>Infer<\/li>\n<li>Analyze<\/li>\n<li>Separate<\/li>\n<li>Discriminate<\/li>\n<li>Combine<\/li>\n<li>Assemble<\/li>\n<li>Organize<\/li>\n<li>Suppose<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Level 2 questions by content area might show up in the following ways:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Science<\/strong>: <em>Compare<\/em> the processes of mitosis and meiosis.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Math<\/strong>: <em>Classify<\/em> the geometric shapes according to their number of sides and angles.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Social Studies<\/strong>: <em>Assemble <\/em>the following historical events in the order of significance, from most to least.<\/li>\n<li><strong>English Language Arts<\/strong>: <em>Analy<\/em>ze the impact that the author\u2019s tone has on the overall meaning of the text.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Can you see how Level 2 questions go a step further than Level 1? More than simply regurgitating information, learners take it and \u2018do something\u2019 with it. They categorize, make distinctions, and compare\/contrast it against another part to see how it affects the whole. These kinds of skills can stimulate curiosity and build a bridge to the questions that really generate creativity and higher-level thinking.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Level 3:<\/strong> <strong>Applying<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>While Level 1 questions prompt students to work with input, and Level 2 questions challenge them to process that input in order to make new connections. Here, students engage in the highest-level thinking skills to create an output. This could result from making evaluations and analyses, testing solutions to various problems, or making predictions.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve included some examples of Level 3 power verbs below:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Evaluate<\/li>\n<li>Generalize<\/li>\n<li>Construct<\/li>\n<li>Imagine<\/li>\n<li>Decide<\/li>\n<li>Create<\/li>\n<li>Judge<\/li>\n<li>Analyze<\/li>\n<li>Forecast<\/li>\n<li>If\/then<\/li>\n<li>Predict<\/li>\n<li>Rate<\/li>\n<li>Justify<\/li>\n<li>Speculate<\/li>\n<li>Synthesize<\/li>\n<li>Build<\/li>\n<li>Hypothesize<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Level 3 questions by content area might look like the following:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Science<\/strong>: Based on data from the last decade of hurricane activity in the southeast U.S., <em>predict<\/em> how the frequency of hurricane activity will change in the next ten years.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Math<\/strong>: <em>Rate <\/em>the probability of a presidential candidate winning the election based on securing the electoral votes from the following U.S. states: Florida, California, Virginia, New York, Illinois.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Social Studies<\/strong>: <em>Create <\/em>a social compact that considers the effects of globalization and technological advancement in the 21st century.<\/li>\n<li><strong>English Language Arts<\/strong>: <em>Build <\/em>an argument that defends or refutes mandatory employee vaccination policies in the United States.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Whether planning for discussion-based activities, project-based learning, or independent inquiry, teachers should strive to orient the majority of student thinking and engagement at Levels 2 and 3. Assessments that prompt students to recall basic facts (such as the date of a historical event, or the name of an author, or the formula for an equation) don\u2019t really assess students\u2019 ability to apply new skills or information to new contexts. A Level 2 or 3 question would challenge students to make connections with basic information. For example, instead of recalling a mere date, a more open-ended question would ask students to predict, based on the time in history that a particular event occurred, the likelihood of it recurring, given a similar sociopolitical atmosphere. Along the same lines, rather than recalling the names of famous authors, a teacher might challenge students to make an argument for how an author would write about a particular modern issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In \u201cA Talk to Teachers,\u201d James Baldwin described the paradox of education: \u201cAs one begins to become conscious, one begins to examine the society in which [they] are educated.\u201d Level 2 (and mainly, level 3) questions aim to foster this kind of reaction in students, to cause them to tilt their heads, do double-takes, point out discrepancies, disrupt the status quo, identify flaws in current institutions, and create innovative solutions for those flaws. These are the questions that inspire us to come up with more questions, to think about our thinking, and to evolve \u2014 both as individuals and societies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>[ad_2]<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.teachthought.com\/education-posts\/costas-levels-of-questioning\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] Costa\u2019s Levels of Questioning \u2014 designed by educational researcher Art Costa \u2014 feature three tiers of questioning designed to promote higher-level thinking and inquiry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":347355,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347354"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}