Understand the core structure, flow, and power of the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) for advancing learning, equity, and agency for students and adults.
Develop a concrete plan to implement, extend, and refine QFT in your own context (classroom, school, organization, or system), across virtual, in-person, and hybrid settings.
Reflect on the role of curiosity and questioning in your teaching practice, leadership, and daily life, and deepen your understanding of how question formulation relates to power and agency.
Examine models for increasing the complexity and sophistication of work with QFT while preserving its deliberate simplicity and judgment-free learning environment.
Apply principles of adult learning to introduce, support, mentor, and sustain powerful question formulation practices with colleagues and other adult learners.
Collaborate with educators and leaders from diverse contexts to design strategies for scaling up and sustaining a culture of question formulation in your community.
The Practitioner Certificate in Question Formulation is designed for educators, leaders, and practitioners who want to deepen their ability to foster curiosity, critical thinking, and agency in their learning communities. Through two thoughtfully sequenced programs, Teaching Students to Ask Their Own Questions: Best Practices in the Question Formulation Technique and Questions at the Core: Extending the Question Formulation Technique to Sustain an Inquiry-Based Culture in Schools, you’ll learn to harness the power of effective questioning to spark student-driven learning, strengthen critical thinking, and expand inquiry practices across classrooms, schools, and organizations.
This two-part certificate supports educators, leaders, and practitioners in transforming questioning from a classroom technique into a foundation for lifelong learning and organizational change. The certificate welcomes interest and registrations from all practitioners in the field.
Certificate Details
You’ll begin with the foundational program, Teaching Students to Ask Their Own Questions, developed by the creators of the QFT, Luz Santana and Dan Rothstein, and explore how teaching students to formulate their own questions fosters engagement, independence, and democratic participation. Guided by Sarah Westbrook, RQI’s director of professional learning, you’ll learn how to apply the QFT in diverse learning environments and adapt it to your own context.
In the second program, Questions at the Core, you’ll expand and apply those skills to develop a sustainable culture of inquiry at the school or system level. You’ll develop practical strategies to embed questioning into teaching, leadership, and professional learning, and create an action plan to implement across your community.
Instructional Design Philosophy
The certificate is built on a constructivist learning approach, recognizing that participants bring unique perspectives, backgrounds, and expertise to the experience. Rather than delivering a one-size-fits-all curriculum, the courses emphasize active, peer-to-peer learning, metacognition, and meaning-making. You’ll be encouraged to ask your own questions, seek out answers (and more questions), solve problems collaboratively, and reflect on your practice, resulting in learning that is personal, adaptive, and applicable to your unique context.
Earning Your Certificate
To earn the Practitioner Certificate in Question Formulation, you must:
Note: RQI must be taken first. QAC builds upon the concepts and skills developed in the initial course.
Each course runs for three weeks in a fully asynchronous online format. All course materials, including videos, readings, prompts, and resources, are available at the start of the program. Participants can complete activities on their own schedule, with optional opportunities to attend live webinars and virtual office hours. Learning experiences include discussion forums, peer collaboration, individual reflections, and application-based assignments. While the programs are self-paced, they are structured to encourage active participation and peer engagement.
Schedule
Time Commitment
Each program requires approximately 10–15 total hours, or about 3–5 hours per week. Participants who complete all required assignments and engage in discussions will receive a certificate noting 15 clock hours of instruction per course (30 hours total for the certificate).
Program Schedule
Teaching Students to Ask Their Own Questions runs three times a year, typically in March, July, and October. Questions at the Core runs two times a year, typically in January and July.
Who Should Attend
This certificate is ideal for anyone interested in deepening their use of questioning to support inquiry, agency, and engagement in learning environments, including:
