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I teach high school math and science, and I often give students assignments that ask them to develop their own questions. I make a point of telling them we won'
by japhyr 11y ago
I teach high school math and science, and I often give students assignments that ask them to develop their own questions. I make a point of telling them we won't be answering all of these questions; some of the best questions would take a lifetime to answer. This helps break students out of the mindset that every question asked in school needs to be answered, and the answer needs to be evaluated as right or wrong.
Many students don't know how to craft a good question, but given the space and time to do so many of them can develop the skill. Classroom conversations change significantly when the guiding questions we're focusing on have been thoughtfully crafted by students.
- lovboat 11y agoDon't they feel sometimes defrauded because their long time worked question is left aside unanswered? Don't they feel that other student are being given full attention meanwhile they are not considered properly?, don't you think that asking and not answering my sound like not a fair game to play? Education has many problems, and the majority of questions about it are unanswered or the real answer is today unknown.
- nine_k 11y agoUnanswered != not paid attention to. Some good questions may be equivalent to known unanswered (P = NP) or unanswerable (halting problem) questions.
- Malician 11y agoHave you seen this? http://kiriakakis.net/comics/mused/a-day-at-the-park http://kiriakakis.net/comics/mused/a-day-at-the-park (It's one of my favorite serious comic-works and is basically a telling of your exact point.)
- cryoshon 11y agoYes! Formulation of scientific questions is an essential skill which I think that every person should have. A scientific question is a request for evidence from the world in the context of what we already think is correct.