Never questioning the importance of questioning

The important thing is not to stop questioning. ~Albert Einstein

Last week Al Overwijk and I gave a one-day workshop entitled Everything we know . . . so far.  At one point Al was describing one of the lessons that came from our lesson study.  The main thrust of the lesson was to develop the criteria for asking good questions.  The impetus had come from an earlier lesson for my class where the students were given an assortment of materials and directed to ask a good question and then answer it.  The students floundered.  The questions were lousy.   As lousy as the disjointed irrelevant questions that we ask them too often.  So the lesson for Al's class was careful crafted to get at the heart of what makes a good question.  See Al's blog for more details.
 

After listening to Al's account of this lesson, a participant raised her hand and I smiled as she asked, "Why is it important for students to be able to ask good questions?"  Sure enough, Al responded with "That's a good question."  I jumped in.  I don't know exactly what I said. My words were sloppy but my passion was real.

The world is changing.  If this younger generation is to deal with problems that don't even exist yet in a rapidly changing world, then it is imperative that we help them develop the skills that they will need.  The first step in problem solving is problem-sensing and for that you need to ask questions - good questions - tough questions - good, tough questions.  Some days the toughest question I get is "Can I go to the washroom?"  We need to stop doing the heavy lifting for our students and let them do the bulk of the work and ask the questions.  We owe it to them.

 
A timely article concerning Jordan Ellenberg’s new book, How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking appeared in Friday's Globe and Mail. To quote the article “Math is the science of not being wrong.” Ellenberg writes. In the real world, it doesn’t just find the right answers – it teaches us to ask the right question in the first place.  I couldn't agree more.