Because I Know The Power of a Question!

Why is it so challenging to only ask questions and not answer? Why does it seem that most of us want to answer questions more than pose them? I had the priviledge of facilitating workshops in Toledo with teachers and with students in Detroit where we had both groups exercise the practice of only asking questions. The teachers in Toledo were instructed to read a brief article and at the conclusion of the reading were to only pose questions for the group. The students in Detroit stood and formed a circle in which they could only ask questions of one another. It was quite the exercise in both cases.

The results of how each group were as different as two sides of the same coin. The teachers began modestly asking questions but somewhere about half-way through the exercise a teacher asked a question which was followed by a 4-5 minute diatribe on his beliefs about education, parenthood, and why he didn't like the article (insert yawn, here). However, with our students their commitment and play within this area of questioning was completely different. Now, let me make a quick disclaimer. The activity that we did with the students was one in which we stood in a circle and asked each other arbitrary questions; however, nonetheless, our students were all about asking each other questions to the point where they were battling and posing great questions to each other right to the very end. By the conclusion of this activity (in which yours truly was truly outperformed by his students, insert smile here) we were all laughing and felt completely energized. I didn't quite have the same sense of energy when we finished with this exercise with our teachers. One may argue that the dynamics of each exercise were completely different and for this I completely concur. Nonetheless, I think there are some important distinctions to make here.

Our students were certainly more willing and able to pose questions almost in rapid succession without hesitation whereas our teachers were in someways very hesitant to only ask the questions. It was as if we had stumped our teachers ability to continue on with their very way of life - consistenly answering questions rather than posing them. If our adults are hesitant or are challenged by asking questions, then how open are these classrooms? How inclusive can a teacher be when much of what is given are simply the answers? I believe this idea is almost synomous with giving students technology in the classroom with hopes that it will magically result in student achievement. "Just giving people devices," says Bill Gates, "has a really horrible track record." Yup and so does just bombarding our students with facts with little or no opportunities to make connections, share their ideas, assess their own thinking (with a nod to professor and researcher John Hattie) and to listen to others.

I've written about this before in one of my prior posts; Grant Wiggins as usual has provided some powerful dialogue and methodology around asking and implementing questioning in the classroom. How can we design our classrooms, schools, communities and relationships to be places where we withhold our egos from answers and direct our energies to exercising thoughtful and curious questions? Questions that hold power. Questions that hold promise. Questions that pose hope and playfulness. Questions that genuinely are designed to spark creativity. Think about it. We are not usually rewarded for asking questions. Sometimes even as a parent I find myself answering questions more quickly than I would like. One part of our training that I appreciated was posing the a question during three different times throughout the day (i.e., How might we inspire growth in our students?) to see how participants thinking had changed throughout the day. 

Do you have any questions that you'd like to ask? Go for it and encourage others to do the same and try hard as you can to delay trying to answer your own or others questions. Watch, listen and observe.