The Power of a Question
10/27/2018
THIS... this is why teaching is my passion, why I pursued it as a career, and this is why you trust Pacific Northern Academy to partner with you in the education and upbringing of your little ones. At PNA, our mission is to educate students to be exceptional learners and independent thinkers of vision, courage, and integrity. So much of that mission is achieved through the culture we create in our school, and much of that is created through project based learning and teaching through the workshop model. Students spend time doing, creating, exploring, questioning. Warren Berger, "innovation expert and questionologist," in his blog post, "Why do kids ask so many questions - and why do they stop?" discussed questioning with Richard Saul Wurman, the original creator of the TED conference. "He [Wurman] immediately focused on the education system. 'In school, we're rewarded for having the answer, not for asking a good question,' Wurman pointed out. Which may explain why kids--who start off asking endless "why" and "what if" questions--gradually ask fewer and fewer of them as they progress through grade school." In my opinion, one of the biggest disservices we can do to children as educators is to teach them to learn for the end result: a grade or test, a project, an answer that already exists. Rather, we should be showing students the joy and wonder of learning for learning's sake, learning because there is an entire world out there to be explored, understood, and marveled at. Moreover, we should not simply show them this, but share in the joy and wonder of it, of discovering and learning more even now as adults, as teachers. Project based learning is a framework that allows us to do just that. It allows us to honor the way we naturally learn and to teach students not only how to learn, but to think like stop motion animators, meteorologists and zoologists, like mathematicians, readers, and writers... like a million different things. Through projects and workshop teaching, we teach students to learn and think in new ways. We encourage them to inquire and find new curiosities, to find answers, dig deeper, and ask even more questions as questions are answered. My role as an educator is not only to keep my students' curiosity and wonder alive, but to broaden their world and realm of wonder, to introduce them to new things about which to be curious. I am not simply giving them information. I am presenting a curiosity that we can all study together, a problem that we can all solve together, or a question that we can all answer together. The curriculums we use and the projects we design encourage students to do, to explore, to try, to ask more questions, to look at things in multiple ways, in different ways, in new ways. The more I delve into PBL with my students and the more time I spend with our older students, the more I see firsthand the difference it makes in their lives, in the very way in which they see the world. In my opinion, it helps them see that they can make a difference, even now as a child, that they can do more than they - or often others - think they can. (I cannot tell you how often I hear, "You do that with 5 year-olds?!") It honors and teaches students the natural way of learning and problem solving. It teaches them the structure of lifelong learning. It makes both of these things their norm. It sparks excitement, natural reflection, and a growth mindset. Finally, not only does it not diminish their curiosity and creativity (like schooling can sometimes do), but it helps their curiosity and creativity flourish. Sure, many of the experiments we do have already been done so the results are expected (although not to our little scientists). It is the method that makes all the difference. In following an inquiry method, in learning and then doing, exploring, and trying, in presenting a problem or question first and learning through the exploration of that problem or question, we encourage students to keep asking questions, to keep exploring the world, to look for problems and seek solutions, to enjoy the wonder of life, to grow in curiosity and creativity... to see that there are always more questions to be asked, more concepts to explore and understand, more ways to make a difference. Project based learning helps us accomplish our mission to create lifelong learners who embrace challenges and are equipped to create solutions for the problems they find, who continue to explore and wonder and dig deeper. Furthermore, it gives our students the language to do this. We teach students how to learn and think in new ways, how to understand the world in new ways. We expect them to read, write, and think like scientists, zoologists, mathematicians, writers, readers, meteorologists, inventors, and many more things. They get to step into all of these different roles and this broadens their worldview, their experience, their understanding of how many more things are left to explore and discover, to ask questions about. It makes them more open-minded. It makes them more curious. It makes them more creative. As a whole, workshop, inquiry, and project based learning help form the culture of our school. Individually, they mold the way our students approach and interact with the world and others in it. If you spend any time in our school, you know that our students are unique, creative, and full of questions. http://amorebeautifulquestion.com/why-do-kids-ask-so-many-questions-but-more-importantly-why-do-they-stop/
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Saania AliMs. Ali graduated from the University of Houston with a Bachelors of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies. She specializes in Early Childhood Education, ESL, and Special Education. Her hobbies include traveling, reading, and painting! Archives
April 2021
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