Tuval Raz

And so we sort of devised our task.

It's called the alternative questions task, where you ask questions about basic objects.

And when we decided how to measure it, we looked to creativity, which is something that's very important for school.

It's something that the UN identifies like a top five skill for this millennium.

And also we looked at complexity, which is sort of relates to higher order of thinking, these sorts of skills that Hux, if you're familiar with Hux,

the acronym that we sort of want to encourage in our students.

And we measured our task using creativity metrics and complexity metrics.

So I wouldn't say that a creative and complex question is everything there is to say about a good question, but it's at least a part of it.

It's only the beginning.

So I think that also touches upon one of the interesting findings we had this study because it was longitudinal.

That is, we measured them at the beginning and at the end of the semester.

And we actually saw that those who at the beginning of the semester asked the more complex questions had poorer grades.

whilst those who asked the more complex questions at the end of the semester had better grades.

And what we learn from this, or at least what I theorize, is if at the beginning you're asking these complex questions, but you don't really know anything about the material, you're probably overthinking it.

You're complicating, maybe you think you know what the subject is about, whilst at the end, this shows a mastery of the subject.

You're asking complex questions because you've learned something.

So I think it's not, you can't say that a complex question is a better question unless it's after you've already learned something and mastered it.

I think I want them to know that they should sort of move away a bit from these standardized tests.

They usually only measure one concept of creative thinking, which is called convergent thinking.

That is one correct answer, you're sort of converging.