Costa's Questions - Conversation versus Rigor

I got to work with Ferndale High School AVID Teacher Mitch Morrison a couple of days ago. We were talking about questions he sometimes gets in his AVID class for tutorials. Things like, "Why is taking AVID elective important?" A higher level question for sure, but there is no proof or resources that can help answer the question and it doesn't improve understanding.

Mitch said it is the difference between conversation and a rigor. Rigorous questions should be ambiguous but resources are available with facts (notes, book, internet, etc) that can be used to prove a point. Conversation questions are interesting and entertaining but they don't pertain to curriculum or rigorous understanding.

I'm using these definitions with my students in tutorials.