I recently had the chance to continue reading Berger’s (2014) A More Beautiful Question. I was able to look at the information he presented through many lenses.
I was intrigued when Berger brought up the idea that preschoolers are not asking “why” all of the time to be annoying, but are really trying to “get to the bottom of things” (p. 42). I see this all of the time in my preschooler. He is extremely inquisitive and his brain is constantly taking in information to process and make sense of the world around him. However, as much as he talks non-stop at home and is constantly asking whatever question may pop into his head, which can get annoying, he has greatly struggled with going to preschool and being successful there. This is very difficult for me to see and process. Being a teacher I place a great value on education. It really hit home when Berger (2014) pointed out that Paul Harris, a Harvard child psychologist “theorizes that a ‘comfort’ factor is at work here; at home with a parent, children are more willing to share their questions than they are at preschool” (p. 43). After having the opportunity to meet with my son’s teacher for conferences, I fear that this is what is happening with him. I found out that after being in school for twelve weeks, he has just recently started opening up and participating in class and interacting with the teachers and other students. He has just started getting comfortable with them. I feel that this will be a consistent issue with him, which will take away from his being as inquisitive at school now and in the future.
Berger (2014) continued by stating, “the problem is, as kids stop questioning, they simultaneously become less engaged in school” (p. 45). I worry about this for my younger preschool children because I have seen it happen with my fourth grader. He loves going to school for the social aspects of going to school, but he is far less engaged in school than he was when he was younger. Now, he completes work as quickly as possible with minimal effort put in so that he can simply be done with it. He has become compliant, and with this compliance has become less inquisitive both in school and at home. I witnessed this same thing with the middle school students I taught. Very few asked questions and most simply completed assignments because that was the expectation. It was hard to encourage my students to open up, ask questions, and help to guide our discussions and the path of our learning. This was because as Berger noted another teacher saying, “we don’t have time for questions – because that will take time away from the number of answers I have to cover,” in order to cover all state standards and have students prepared for testing (p. 46).
This week, I had the opportunity to develop my own questions in relation to my practice. I had five minutes to sit and brainstorm my questions. Here is what I came up with:
At first, I had a difficult time getting started. However, once I was able to come up with my first two questions, they really started flowing. I was surprised when my timer went off at how fast five minutes had flown by.
I was shocked that when I started this activity that it took me a little bit to get going. I think of myself as a life-long learner and because of this, I do find myself constantly asking questions. They are mostly clarifying questions. When I started at my current school, it was a running joke that every time I came into the office it was with at least two or three questions. I find that with my colleagues, most also pride themselves on being life-long learners, but are in the same boat with asking clarifying questions. This generally occurs when we are presented with a new initiative or new procedures that we are going to be using.
All of this left me with the question, how do we get back to the basics and spark inquisitiveness in us and our students?
References:
Berger, W. (2014). A more beautiful question: The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.
Bridges, M. (2020). Questions related to my practice as a Digital Literacy Specialist. [image].
CBC. (2019). Confused schitts creek. [GIF]. Giphy. https://gph.is/g/aj0YLq4
Virtual EyeSee. (2011). Question 1. [image]. Flickr. https://flic.kr/p/aiEhXH