Compare & Contrast Questions: An Easy Way to Make Learning Interesting

Benefits of Compare & Contrast:

This format develops their analytical skills as they are forced to think of things parallel to one another and assemble an argument that they don't usually think of. It also gives them a deeper understanding of what they’ve learnt, as they think about it instead of just mugging up the concept.

For instance, if your child learnt about the email function in his computer class today, ask him to draw an argument for how email and postal mail are similar to one another, the perks of one above the other, and which they’d prefer to use.

Go Beyond Academics:

You can extend this line of compare and contrast questions beyond what they’ve learnt in school. Ask them to draw comparisons between other things that they are interested in or new things they’ve experienced lately.

Some of the things you can ask them about are:

• Celebrities that they’re fond of or dislike

• Characters from a book they read recently (You can even extend this into a full-fledged book discussion)

• Movies they’ve seen or books they’ve read (If they’ve read a book that was also made into a film, you can ask them to compare between the two)

• Places they’ve visited (You could go beyond holiday spots to everyday places you’ve taken them to within the city)

• Board games

• Things in nature like plants, animals, natural phenomenon, etc.

Keep the activity fun and take part by presenting your own answers. This will help develop their analytical skills and make learning more fun. It will also teach them to look at both sides of the coin and develop a more well-rounded opinion on a particular subject.