Questions Lead to Engagment in Classrooms

For class, we completed a Quickfire - where you brianstorm questions for a few minutes. Leading up to it, I was stressed. I worried that I wouldn’t like the questions I would come up with – or if I could even come up with questions in the first place. I set the timer and tried it. As I was completing it, I was getting frustrated with myself, as I was struggling to put my thoughts into an understandable question. It was difficult for me. It was like I had ideas in my head, but couldn’t properly vocalize what I was wondering. I think what made it more difficult for me, was that I was trying to think of tough questions that I really cared about. If I had focused less on the difficulty, and more on what I was curious about, it could have been smoother. 

My students often ask questions, sometimes to the point where it can be frustrating. Specifically, it gets frustrating because I am often repeating myself. For example, the most common question I get is “what do I do with the assignment when I’m done?” Almost always, the answer is for it to go in the turn-in bin. I would be less frustrated if I found the questions more explorative or curious. For example, this week we briefly talked about Northern Ireland. This discussion brought about several intriguing questions from my students: “What currency do they use and why is it different from Ireland’s? Why did Northern Ireland and Ireland separate? Why is Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom?” I love hearing these kinds of questions in my classroom because it can lead to deeper thinking about what we are learning, and it shows what my students are curious about.  

I do not normally ask that many questions, but when I do, it is to my students to encourage them to think deeper about something specific. No it does not seem weird to me to have that many back-to-back questions in that paragraph because as a teacher, I understand that it is trying to push me to think. When I do it for my students, I start with my main idea question, but then add many sub-topic questions that can relate to the main question. I think it helps my students understand what I am expecting them to discuss or write about. Coming up with those types of questions, though, seems easier to me than to push for my own questions for things I am curious about.

Figure 1: Screenshot of Questions from my Quickfire

In Berger’s A More Beautiful Question, he starts by discussing why there is such a large decrease in the number of questions asked throughout life. He attributes the decrease to companies and schools demanding answers instead of questions (Berger, 2014, p.2). I relate to this. Throughout my schooling, I do not have many memories of brainstorming questions – the few times being to explore topic ideas for research papers. Oftentimes throughout my schooling, we were already supplied with the questions and tasked with solving them. The lack of experience in focusing on questions has led me to being uncomfortable with sitting and brainstorming questions. I believe that if we had focused more on questions, I would be more comfortable with it.

In his second chapter, Berger discusses the trend in engagement in school (Berger, 2014, p.45). I was not surprised to see it the lowest among high school students. I used to teach at a high school, and I saw the high amount of apathy there. Another thing I noticed, though, was a difference in engagement in the subjects. Many students were disinterested in economics, however, in my current issues elective class, I often saw an uptick in engagement. Reading Berger’s book and reflecting back on those times made me realize that more questions (from me and from students) were asked in that class versus economics, and often more thought provoking questions versus ones with straight forward answers. My current issues students were more curious about the topics that were discussed and it brought about more questions, making them more engaged. Like Berger, I see a connection between students asking questions and students being more engaged and interested in education. 

Berger, W. (2014). A more beautiful question: The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas. Bloomsbury.