Is there a moment in your life where you felt that you could have asked more, learned more, and truthfully discovered the meaning of something? Berger's book, A More Beautiful Question, explores the world of questioning from its phrasing of questions, lighting up creativity, to diving deeper into the limits of inquiry in the modern world and the classroom. Yet, are we challenging those thoughts?
This book challenges one to reflect on how one looks at the world through questioning (Berger, 2014). Are we asking those critical questions that lead us to change our thinking? As a child, we ask many questions, but that is how we learn about something for the first time. As we grow up, we ask fewer "why" questions. So "why" is that?
What happened to the creativity? It disappears because we do not take time to engage in the why, what if, and how questions (Berger, 2014, p. 71-134 ). If we go back to our kindergarten years, we learned through hands-on approaches to learning, where we brought creativity to the forefront of education. The why, what if, and how questions were naturally built into this learning process by teachers. Throughout school, it is about the who, what, when, and where questions because memorization is at the forefront. The lack of critical questions is where we struggle in the workforce and life.
In the classroom, my goal is to have my students engage in critical thinking. My students learn a lot of the memorization facts, but when I allow them to engage in deep thought through a project or Socratic seminar, they experience something more meaningful.
I have a lesson where my students have learned about the cause and effect of the French Revolution. Students learn critical memorization facts and have several assignments where they research with primary and secondary sources. Once they have a basic understanding of the information, I hold a Socratic seminar where my students are asked opened-end questions, and they create the solution to plan and solve the what-ifs. They can listen to each other's ideas and build on them. After a year of teaching, the positive feedback from activities like this proved that these experiences matter.
This lesson represents the push that Berger's book brings into the limelight. But how does this spark inquiry in the classroom to encourage creativity? It is all about the design thinking process. Teachers create lessons that allow students to dive deeper to ask the right questions (Plattner, H. (n.d.)). Within this cycle, students pose a question and focus on how to find a solution.
But, an important question we must ask is, why are we hesitant to question?
In the classroom, I am working towards improving this problem by changing my teaching practices to allow more opportunities for students to challenge their critical thinking skills. For my MAET Maker project, my students would be tasked with designing a working light bulb using the Squishy Circuit maker tool. I didn't give students directions on what it had to look like. I allowed them to experience this lesson using their questions and designs to create their prototype. This project aimed to see the creativity shine and have them question throughout the design process, just like I did when creating my prototype.
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| A cover of Berger's Book I took when getting accepted to MAET! |
What happened to the creativity? It disappears because we do not take time to engage in the why, what if, and how questions (Berger, 2014, p. 71-134 ). If we go back to our kindergarten years, we learned through hands-on approaches to learning, where we brought creativity to the forefront of education. The why, what if, and how questions were naturally built into this learning process by teachers. Throughout school, it is about the who, what, when, and where questions because memorization is at the forefront. The lack of critical questions is where we struggle in the workforce and life.
In the classroom, my goal is to have my students engage in critical thinking. My students learn a lot of the memorization facts, but when I allow them to engage in deep thought through a project or Socratic seminar, they experience something more meaningful.
I have a lesson where my students have learned about the cause and effect of the French Revolution. Students learn critical memorization facts and have several assignments where they research with primary and secondary sources. Once they have a basic understanding of the information, I hold a Socratic seminar where my students are asked opened-end questions, and they create the solution to plan and solve the what-ifs. They can listen to each other's ideas and build on them. After a year of teaching, the positive feedback from activities like this proved that these experiences matter.
This lesson represents the push that Berger's book brings into the limelight. But how does this spark inquiry in the classroom to encourage creativity? It is all about the design thinking process. Teachers create lessons that allow students to dive deeper to ask the right questions (Plattner, H. (n.d.)). Within this cycle, students pose a question and focus on how to find a solution.
When students go through the design thinking process, they must think of a question to investigate. For Berger, that would be a "why"' question (Berger, 2014, p. 92-99). After coming up with their question, they go through the cycle above and work towards a solution. The question from the beginning could have multiple answers, and the goal is to experiment to discover solutions while constantly questioning and improving through the process.
Berger's book dives into how this lack of creativity and questions is missing from the workforce (Berger, 2014, p. 152-174). The products we use in our daily lives began with questions. If teachers were to evaluate their teaching practices to make lessons more student-centered, we might be able to bring this thoughtful inquiry and innovation back to the world. The initial question doesn't have to be complicated; it can just be a simple thought that someone has. It is nerve-wracking to do because were are uncomfortable with questioning the unknown.
But, an important question we must ask is, why are we hesitant to question?
In the classroom, I am working towards improving this problem by changing my teaching practices to allow more opportunities for students to challenge their critical thinking skills. For my MAET Maker project, my students would be tasked with designing a working light bulb using the Squishy Circuit maker tool. I didn't give students directions on what it had to look like. I allowed them to experience this lesson using their questions and designs to create their prototype. This project aimed to see the creativity shine and have them question throughout the design process, just like I did when creating my prototype.
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| MAET Maker Prototype |
Here is my question for you, are you asking better questions?
Berger's book paves the way for teachers and learners that reevaluates our creativity. If the world is constantly changing around us, we need innovations to help transform the globe. I was always told as a child that there are no dumb questions. It is now about the Why, What-if, and How questions that will spear my creativity as a human, teacher, and student to ask the right questions.
References
Berger's book paves the way for teachers and learners that reevaluates our creativity. If the world is constantly changing around us, we need innovations to help transform the globe. I was always told as a child that there are no dumb questions. It is now about the Why, What-if, and How questions that will spear my creativity as a human, teacher, and student to ask the right questions.
References
Berger, W. (2014). A more beautiful question: The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas. Bloomsbury.
Plattner, H. (n.d.). An Introduction to Design Thinking Process Guide. Institute Design at Stanford.
https://web.stanford.edu/~mshanks/MichaelShanks/files/509554.pdf
Terrar, D. (2018). What is Design Thinking?. Agile Thinking.
http://www.theagileelephant.com/what-is-design-thinking/
Plattner, H. (n.d.). An Introduction to Design Thinking Process Guide. Institute Design at Stanford.
https://web.stanford.edu/~mshanks/MichaelShanks/files/509554.pdf
Terrar, D. (2018). What is Design Thinking?. Agile Thinking.
http://www.theagileelephant.com/what-is-design-thinking/
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