Becoming your own Questioner

Have you ever asked yourself “It’s no use asking questions when I can’t answer them"?  This is the negative attitude we need to change! Students need to be confident in their abilities to be able to answer any questions they are faced with. It doesn’t have to be the right answer, as long as you are trying, and as long it helps develop your thinking process. By being stuck, you are increasing your thinking process, as you are putting yourself in a challenging environment and experience new learning strategies. As educators, we should promote students to be the best they can be. To not put themselves down by labelling who they think they might be so quickly. One of the biggest obstacles to become a great questioner is attitude. We create our monster in our head, by feeding us information that is scaring us from even entering the Entry Phrase. For example, in Chapter 8, On Becoming your own Questioner, the majority of individuals have a temptation in saying, “I am not a questioning sort of person.”  By this, you are putting yourself down before even starting. You want to avoid the situation, instead of trying to attempt it. In Blog 2, I discussed the importance of teaching students that it is okay to fail. To be successful, you need to fail and attempt the situation from all different angles. From asking yourself questions, it will allow you to attack the question from different views, by gaining different perspectives on how to view it. Chapter 8, On Becoming your own Questioner, stated, that anyone can become “such a person” if you put your mind to it and adopt an active attitude to the world. Being an active thinker will allow you to create deeper questions to ask. This will lead to more successes and with success, you will be more confident in your knowledge and approach to solving.

           Before reading Chapter 8, On Becoming your own Questioner, I would never ask myself questions because it was another thing I might fail at. Like the quote said, “It’s no use asking questions when I can’t answer them.” Therefore, why would I want to set myself up for failure, when confidence comes from success. After reading, I reflected on this question and noticed how much I missed. Asking difficult questions isn’t supposed to be viewed negatively or “wanting to make me fail,” they should be viewed as a learning opportunity! Putting yourself into challenging situations will help you develop your thinking process and understanding, as it creates an environment you aren’t used to. This will allow you to see different perspectives from different angles and new ways on how to solve problems by gaining and evolving new strategies that will help you in the future in and outside of the classroom.

           My issue was, I never knew what kind of questions to ask to help facilitate my thinking. I found that the questions I was asking myself were surface level and very open-ended. It was hard for me to create deeper questions to help me think differently, and I believe this is a problem for the majority of students. We don’t know where to start or what is considered “deep” questions. Therefore, as teachers, it is important to put students in situations where they are forced to think of questions. The more practice they have, the better they will become and the more comfortable they will be. Start them off in groups, where they can brainstorm questions together and bounce ideas off one another. Creating a group environment allows students to interact with different students. This will allow them to grow and develop as students as they are learning from their classmates, and understanding that they are different ways of solving questions compared to the common way we are taught to learn. Another strategy to help improve the depth of your questions is to have examples posted around your classroom. Give a list of questions to your students that will help them become better questioner, and understand what makes a good question beneficial. Also, if they are surrounded by questions, they will have resources to brainstorm off of, and help them get unstuck when they can’t think of a question to help them facilitate their thinking processes! As educators, we need to supply our students with endless resources and tools to grow and different strategies to help them improve. Not all students learn the same. The majority of students don’t try anything new, as they aren’t comfortable with that technique, or they already placed that label on themselves “I’m not a question type of person.” It is our responsibility to make sure students’ aren't creating negative labels or not believing in themselves. That is where we step in, we are the belief they need! If we believe in them, then they will start believing in themselves and taking small steps into trying new things!