“I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask the fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.”
-Eleanor Roosevelt
“How long does this paper have to be?”
“Is this for homework?”
“Will it have to be typed?”
“Will this be on the test?”
“Do spelling and grammar count?”
Too often, the only questions students spend time asking are the ones that seem relatively insignificant and grade-oriented. Student curiosity appears limited to the specifications on graded work, and rarely do they seem to ask questions that actually matter. Why is this the case?
What’s true about question-asking now is what’s true about question asking always: people ask questions about things they want to know. So, students want to know about their assignments. And that, too often, is it.
The question we should be asking is not “What’s wrong with these students?” but rather, “What can we do to make their questions about more than just assignments?” Students ask questions in school about what they believe to be valuable. This means that students see grades and assignments as valuable – but how can we help facilitate their native curiosity about content that matters?
For students to ask deep, meaningful questions that expand their learning, they need to see the content and skills they’re studying as actually valuable. They also need training as good question askers. Good question-asking does not just happen automatically. Students need a safe and fulfilling place where their questions are welcomed, and training on how to develop their curiosity and question-asking skills.
How to Help Students See Value in Curiosity
Despite the inherent value of education, most students learn content and go through the motions of school because they “have to.” Even our most authentic students tend to focus on grades, test scores, and assignment tasks because these – so they’ve been told – are what their futures depend on. This is not a great recipe for facilitating genuine curiosity and questions.
We want students to bring their own original questions because their learning is so much more impactful that way. Usually it’s the teachers in the question-asking position, and students who are required to answer the questions to prove what they know.
It is a powerful experience when students go beyond proving what they know and begin asking questions about what they don’t know.
Teachers, therefore, must proactively reverse this. Although students must learn what our curriculums and standards demand, we should not assume they automatically perceive its value or have an innate curiosity about the content.
Here are some methods teachers have used to create internal motivation in students’ learning:
- Tell students WHY they are learning any particular content or skill.
- Give students relevant APPLICATIONS of the curriculum to real-world situations they can understand.
- Show students EXAMPLES of how their content can be applied.
- Ask students QUESTIONS of your own that get them to consider how they can apply the content themselves.
- SCAFFOLD content, so that all learning connects to previously acquired knowledge.
- Include a VARIETY of instructional and application methods, so students can acquire and apply the information in a way that best appeals to them.
- Intentionally show students conflicting, debatable, or contradictory examples so they can be drawn into examining the details of the content.
- Make it PERSONAL for them by using the content to challenge students to define who they are and what they stand for.
The more students can internalize their motivation for learning, the more likely they will be to ask meaningful questions. The trick is that you must proactively work to demonstrate what the students are learning has significance for their lives and futures.
Teaching Students to Ask GOOD Questions
I frequently tell students that I’m not smart because I have all the answers. I’m smart because I have all the questions. Good question askers turn into smart people because their curiosity trains their minds to look for information. The more frequent and meaningful the questions, the broader and more applicable the learning becomes.
Students often ask the same assignment-related questions because those are the most accessible, applicable questions they know. However, when they realize many different types and methods for question asking exist, they realize they have extensive opportunities to take command of their own learning.
Here are some of the consistent applications of question-asking that classroom teachers have successfully incorporated:
- Teach students about the different types of questions that can be asked.
- Actively model your own question asking.
- Require students to write original questions in their annotations when reading.
- Require students to prepare for discussions with notes that include several questions to ask classmates.
- Have students practice interviewing one another.
- Provide students with a few sample questions, then have them add their own.
- Create a “Questions We Have” chart in the classroom for students to write down their general inquiries, then research answers together.
- Have students interview friends, family members, and neighbors with their own questions.
- Show students debatable, controversial material that naturally stimulates curiosity.
- Have students create questions about a subject they are naturally curious about prior to researching that topic.
When question asking becomes an integrated part of the learning process, then students more naturally incorporate good questions into their daily routines. As it stands, the mandatory nature of learning and grading drives students to see the questions related to assignments as the most important. While these student questions have some value, the more we can train students to be naturally inquisitive people then the more we can help them achieve more meaningful ways to take ownership of their learning.
How do you help students develop curiosity and authentic questions? Share your ideas with us in a comment below!