In the next few blog posts, I plan on exploring "Questioning" in the classroom. I am in the midst of reading two books on the topic and hope to finish them next week when school is on break so I can share my thoughts with you. The books I am reading are "The Power of Questioning: Opening Up the World of Student Inquiry" by Starr Sacketsein and "Questioning for Classroom Discussion by Walsh and Sattes. For the purpose of starting this discussion, I reflect on a blog post written by Katrina Schwartz, entitled "How to bring more beautiful questions back to school."

The video below highlights some of the reasons our society tends to discourage questions and encourages answers.

We live in the Google era where everyone can look up answers in seconds. But Google is looking to employ people who ask critical, deep and insightful questions. That should tell you that we need to teach our students to question, question and question more. The good news is that children start off in a state of curiosity and if we just keep encouraging that curiosity, we the rest will be easy. The damage is usually done when people discourage questions.

Why don't kids want to question? Here are few reasons:
1. Questioning may not appear as cool. Kids may view those who ask the teacher lots of questions as suck-ups.
2. Kids who question a lot might feel it makes them appear dumb or less intelligent.

Parents can do a lot to encourage their children to question, but that is a topic for another time. One quick suggestion is when your child comes home from school, instead of asking "What did you learn in school today?" ask "What good question did you or one of your classmates ask in school today?"

To focus on teachers, I have one overarching principle that one of my mentors and teachers taught me. You don't have to answer every question. It is ok for teachers to say to a student, "that is a great question; I don't have an answer, but I will look for one."

Here are five ways Schwartz recommends to encourage questioning:

1. Make it Safe - Kids won't raise their hand in class if they think others will think they are stupid. Fear can kill their curiosity.

2. Make it cool - good questions lead to cool stuff and can make the world a better place. Convince your students of this!

3. Make it Fun - Turn questions into a game to make it more fun and interactive for your students.

4. Make it Rewarding - if a child asks a great question, tell him so. Go home and look for new answers that show the student you are taking his questions seriously.

5. Make it Stick - questions have to be a regular part of your classroom.

Links to Interesting Articles:

1. 3 Things Students Want to Hear from their Teachers