Inquiry questions translate a Statement of Inquiry into something teachers can actually plan lessons around. MYP typically distinguishes three types, each serving a different purpose across a unit.

Factual questions

These have a specific, often verifiable answer, and usually anchor the beginning of a unit. Example: "What evidence exists about the causes of the French Revolution?" Factual questions build the knowledge base the rest of the inquiry depends on.

Conceptual questions

These push students to make connections, compare, and generalize beyond a single fact. Example: "How does the interpretation of evidence change depending on who is asking the question?" Conceptual questions are where the key concept and related concepts show up most directly in classroom discussion.

Debatable questions

These are open, have no single correct answer, and are best used for discussion, argumentation, or extended writing tasks. Example: "Is historical fairness even possible to achieve?" Debatable questions are often the culminating discussion of a unit, or the framing for a summative assessment task.

Writing your own

A practical planning habit: write one factual, one conceptual, and one debatable question for every unit, and check that each traces back to the Statement of Inquiry. If a question doesn't obviously connect to the SOI, either the question or the SOI needs revising.

See the Unit Planner Checklist in the Resource Library for a quick way to verify this alignment before you teach.