Meet Luiza Aitkozha, Author of “What’s In a Question? Tutoring Technique Through the Lens of Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy”

Blog post by Meg Palmer 

 

Luiza Aitkozha found her passion for research while working as a writing intern/tutor for her writing center at Nazarbayev University (Kazakhstan). When writing a paper on scaffolding theory, Luiza’s advisor saw potential in it from the very first draft. She encouraged Luiza to dig deeper into initial observations about questioning, and Luiza loved the writing and research process so much that she devoted the next two years of her life to it. 

“There were a lot and a lot of drafts,” Luiza said. “At first I wasn't even planning to publish it, but once my professor suggested it, I took it seriously, planning deadlines, even though it was optional.”

Luiza’s article, “What’s In a Question? Tutoring Technique Through the Lens of Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy” explores what kinds of questions tutors ask writers in their writing sessions and how these can map onto Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy. To answer her own research questions, Luiza conducted a literature review as well as an IRB-approved study,which included observing multiple writing consultations. This approach gave Luiza a strong understanding of the theory and then a firsthand account of what actually happened during writing consultations.

Through her research, Luiza found that there were many different kinds of questions that tutors asked — and some of them allowed room for deeper cognitive processing than others. And regardless of what kinds of questions tutors were asking, they weren’t waiting very long for their clients to answer. This wait time shows a huge opportunity for growth for her writing center, as she brought back what she learned to her fellow writing interns and future sessions. 

“I wrote in my paper in a post-Soviet country, and we have more directive approaches,” Luiza said. “Even though we were told to have a non-directive approach, it was still hard to ask questions and not tell the student what to actually do. So I do admit I used to be the problem kind of maybe a little bit.” 

In her research, she came across one research article that has even become the foundation of her own tutoring approach, which she would read before every session. “[The Author] just explained questions so well. She even had a step-by-step guide like what to work on. So I feel like I started being more intentional with my consultations.”

Luiza received her bachelor’s degree in 2025 in World Languages and Linguistics and is excited to continue pursuing her education in the fall with a master’s degree in Comparative Literature & World Literature at East China Normal University. This paper is a springboard into all that is to come.

“This paper is like my first step ‘in academia,’ I'd say, because I do want to pursue a PhD and become a professor at a university, so I feel like I'm going to need to write and publish a lot of papers,” Luiza said. “I'm very excited that this is my first one. I really fell in love with my paper.”

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Meg Palmer is a PhD student in the English Department at Northeastern University. Their research interests include digital humanities, sonic rhetorics, and community engaged learning. Undergraduate research also played a huge role in their life and played an influential role in their decision to pursue a master’s and later doctorate degree. Now, Meg serves as a mentor to undergraduate students, and is so grateful to be able to support their research and self-discovery. Meg also loves paddle boarding, their cats, and singing in their barbershop quartet, Past Curfew.