Yah, But Why?

Remember when your child was about four years old and everything was a puzzle to them? Combined with this puzzle was an irrepressible need to know why, hence the “yah, but why?” refrain. Somewhere along the line, students stopped wondering, or maybe they still wonder, but no longer ask. There is also the possibility that your child still asks many questions. Either way, I would ask that you foster this type of thinking, it’s wonderful. Unfortunately for educators, some students seem quite rusty at wondering, and we as educators know that the Inquiry Model of instruction is a valuable strategy. Inquiry Model is a form of active learning that starts by posing questions, problems or scenarios—rather than simply presenting established facts or portraying a smooth path to knowledge. The process is often assisted by a facilitator. (wikipedia)

What we now benefit from in the 21st century is the ability to look things up in an instant. I know with my friends and family if there is ever a second that we can’t remember, who sings this song, what year did that movie come out, etc. we can check immediately with a “phone.” I know my phone is barely used for calling, and really is a hand-held computer. Teaching has hopefully evolved with the technology, and as such teaching students ways to navigate so much information successfully is our task.

Some middle school students would prefer to do work that doesn’t require a deeper level of thinking. Middle school teachers obviously ask students to do some surface thinking, recall what they learned last year, or show us the different features of a map. When the thinking gets more complicated and sometimes abstract some students are out of practice, don’t trust their ability, or simply do not know how, to hypothesize, draw conclusions, investigate, or revise. As educators we refer to these levels of thinking as Depth of Knowledge. The connection for me when it comes to inquiry based instruction is about the thinking needed to be inquisitive, and then to understand what to ask to know about something as fully as possible.

I read an article recently that made me think about all our students. I know that kids are curious. My question is do they know what to do about satisfying that intellectual curiosity? Teachers plan instruction to guide students in this personalized active learning. It seems to some teachers that students don’t know what questions to ask. I gave a couple of these teachers this article, but then while thinking about it, I thought, why can’t parents help from home too? I talk with many parents who ask about helping their students from home. While not all the suggestions in the article apply to both school and home, I thought a few certainly do, and if nothing else the conversations at home could shift a bit to foster the “yah, but why?” effect.

Take a look at this one-page article Five Ways to Strengthen Student Questioning, and because this blog strives for a back and forth dialogue, add any strategies you may do at home, and of course any questions (pun intended) are welcome.

Works Cited

Ascd. “Road Tested / Five Ways to Strengthen Student Questioning.” Education Update:Does Homework Help?:Five Ways to Strengthen Student Questioning, www.ascd.org/publications/newsletters/education-update/jan17/vol59/num01/Five-Ways-to-Strengthen-Student-Questioning.aspx.

“Inquiry-Based Learning.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, June 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquiry-based_learning.