Most teachers would agree that asking questions is at the heart of learning. But there are opposing/contrasting pedagogical perspectives on what the role of questioning should be.
Prescriptive approaches, associated with traditionalist pedagogy, prioritise a written curriculum, one that has well defined and established domains of knowledge. The aim of education is to communicate these domains in the classroom and for the students to commit them to memory. In such classrooms the emphasis is on knowledge, provided and communicated by the teacher. The power relationship is fundamentally asymmetrical, with the teacher clearly making the decisions and organising the direction and speed of learning.
On the other hand Emergent approaches, associated with progressive pedagogy, prioritise a discovery curriculum, one that comes out of the children’s interests and observations. The aim of education at this end of the spectrum is to ignite a love of learning and keep it lit. The teacher’s role is to facilitate learning, to observe the children’s interests and shape the curriculum accordingly.
Now, if we concentrate not on the ends but towards the middle, we can see how a ‘mixed’ classroom approach structures the learning experiences of the students around a written curriculum, while also finding room to incorporate their interests and ideas. The teacher’s role in this type of classroom is to keep one eye on the direction and speed of travel through the prescribed curriculum, while at the same time keeping an eye on the students’ interest and engagement in the learning process. Slide too far one way and the teacher risks not teaching the curriculum, slide too far the other and she risks losing some of the students as they get bored and disengaged.
“Education is a process of inquiry and questions are the chief agents by which meanings are mediated.”
Working in this way requires questions to become the primary tool of learning. As Morgan and Saxton explain in their excellent book, Asking Better Questions, “Education is a process of inquiry and questions are the chief agents by which meanings are mediated.” If our aim, therefore, is to teach the curriculum in ways that incorporate the student’s interests, then giving them opportunities to ask and explore their own questions is central to the process. But more than this, questions are the main mediates of meaning. That is through the asking, exploring, and answering of questions (with the support and know-how of the teacher) students are able to both acquire new knowledge of the curriculum and develop the cognitive tools necessary to make meaning for themselves.
Using a painting to start an inquiry
For this to happen they need opportunities to engage with the process of asking questions. Being given answers, to ingest, remember, and regurgitate for a test, is not enough. Learning, at least the kind of learning that hands the tools to the learners, requires a lot more, it requires the students to engage in the learning process, to ask questions, work out answers for themselves, and to collaborate with the teacher and with each other.
This has to start early and happen often, it can’t be tagged on as an afterthought or left until students finish school. If we do this, it won’t happen. Developing an inquiring mind takes time and it takes practice. Asking questions is central to the process and it doesn’t happen by magic. We need to be rigorous and disciplined in planning and in providing students with opportunities to ask questions, discuss possibilities, and investigate answers. If we value education as a process of developing critical, reasoning minds, as well knowledgeable and wise ones, then asking questions is not just helpful, it is essential.