costa level questions
Liam Parker
Updated on July 07, 2026
Costa’s Levels of Questioning — designed by educational researcher Art Costa — feature three tiers of questioning designed to promote higher-level thinking and inquiry.
Who is Costa from Costa levels of questioning?
Arthur Costa, an education researcher, divided questions into three categories. These categories define the complexity or depth of thinking required by different types of questions.
What are the 3 levels of questions called?
The Levels of Questions strategy helps students comprehend and interpret a text by requiring them to answer three types of questions about it: factual, inferential, and universal.
What is an example of a Level 2 question?
*How does the man get “free?” Level Two questions can be answered after interpreting or analyzing text. They are inference-based.
What is an example of a Level 1 question?
Level #1 Questions: Example
With whom did Cinderella live? What did Cinderella lose on the palace steps? What were Cinderella’s slippers made out of? How did Cinderella get to the ball?
What are Costa levels?
The Three-‐Story House
Level 1 (the lowest level) requires one to gather information. Level 2 (the middle level) requires one to process the information. Level 3 (the highest level) requires one to apply the information. 3—Applying. Evaluate Generalize Imagine.
What is Costa’s Level 1 questions?
Level One questions cause students to recall information. This level of question causes students to input the data into short-term memory, but if they don’t use it in some meaningful way, they may soon forget. Level Two questions enable students to process information.
What are the 3 levels of Costa’s thinking?
imagine, predict—their best illumination comes through the skylight. Level 1 (the lowest level) requires one to gather information. Level 2 (the middle level) requires one to process the information. Level 3 (the highest level) requires one to apply the information.
What are Level 4 questions?
Level 4 questions require students to provide support or evidence for their elaborations. They might ask students to identify sources that support their elaborations.
Who was art Costa?
Arthur L. Costa is professor emeritus of education at California State University, Sacramento, and co-founder of the Institute for Intelligent Behavior in El Dorado Hills, California.
What is the art of questioning?
All teaching and learning lies in the art of questioning. Questioning which is the basis of teaching task encourages recalling , deepens the learning process and comprehension , promotes the imagination and problem-solving , satisfies the sense of curiosity , and increases the creativity .