Blog Assignment #6

                                                       Education: A Process of Inquiry


The first educated men were the ones brave enough to ask questions. All scholars from the Greek Philosophers, to the Renaissance, to the Enlightenment, and beyond first began by asking questions.

As teachers, our core desire is to inspire ourselves and others to ask questions, but how do we do so? What questions do we ask, and how do we ask them? More so, teachers need to know effective and creative ways of asking students questions. In this way, asking questions can be used in conjunction with Project Based Learning.

High School Principal Ben Johnson inquired of the learning process: "What does a teacher asking questions of a class expect the class to learn from the questioning process?" (Source: Ben Johnson, edutopia.org: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/asking-better-questions-deeper-learning-ben-johnson)


The key phrase here is "...expect the class to learn...".

According to Ben Johnson's The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom, students realize their "role" in the classroom very early on. Some students deem themselves intelligent, others un-intelligent, and some do not care.

The goal of a teacher is to engage all students in the learning process by going about asking questions in the right way. Merely asking questions and selecting only the "smart" students to answer only benefits the "smart" students because the other students in the class may or may not be paying
attention.


Mr. Johnson Proposes that the way to engage all students in the questioning process is an altered version of Mary Rowe's questioning method. Rowe's method includes asking a question, waiting three seconds, and selecting a student. Mr. Johnson proposes randomizing the students being selected engaging not only the students who do not feel they fit into the "smart" category, but also the students who have already answered questions because they may be called on again. This prevents students from day-dreaming during the questioning process.

One of the most important methods of effective questioning includes asking questions that will inspire more questions and invite thoughtful responses. This is accomplished by asking open ended questions.

The two main types of questions asked in an academic setting are closed-ended questions and open-ended questions. Closed Ended Questions are questions that can be answered merely by a "yes", "no" or a simple phrase. Open Ended Questions leave the response open to students, thereby challenging the student to think about the ideas, events, and concepts that make the question significant.

In my opinion, there are two dimensions to Open Ended questions. The first dimension is based on how the teacher phrases the question. Joanne Chesley's "Rosa Parks" example provides a great example of how phrasing can change a Closed-Ended question into an Open-Ended question. Take a look.



In addition to Phrasing, I believe another method of Open Ended Questioning includes Counter Factual Evidence. In the academic field of History, scholars use Counter Factual Evidence to discern significant events and gain a better knowledge of History in general. Counter Factual evidence is the process of saying "What if?" in a historical scenario.

For example: "Hitler was a message carrier in the German Army during World War 1, what if Hitler had been shot when delivering a message and never lived to become the leader of Nazi Germany? How would World War 2 have been different? Would it have happened? How would the world be different now?"

By asking "What if" we can use Counter Factual Evidence to inspire Open Ended questions that result in an engaging learning process of inquiry and discovery.

One must also be sure to ask comprehensive, specific questions that engage students in the learning process. Teachers must avoid leading questions. These leading questions are questions that are phrased in a way that insinuate what the answer is. The only time leading questions are appropriate is in a scenario where one is asking leading questions to prove a larger point or move on to another, more serious question.

As teachers, it is essential that we are interested in students questions. Questioning is an interactive and engaging process, so teachers need to be prepared for interactivity in the classroom.

I believe an extremely effective way of both questioning and engaging students is having students engage in Socratic Circles in the classroom.

Named after Greek Philosopher Socrates, Socratic Circles have students arrange in a circle to discuss a topic or idea. The leader of the group asks an Open Ended question and the students respond to the question one at a time with their interpretations, ideas, or more questions. The students listen to one another and discuss the topic in depth, thus gaining a more comprehensive understanding of the topic or idea.

It is essential for us to not only ask questions, but know how to ask questions. More so, it is our job to inspire students to ask questions themselves. Questioning was the first way the scholarly mind developed, and continues to be the most significant to this day.

"I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think." - Socrates