In this chapter, we can see what is the real importance of making students go beyond the information given by means of ‘essential questions’ that have as purpose to stimulate the development of knowledge, skills, attitudes, habits of mind, and understanding on the students. The idea is that they find a real sense to what is learned in every one of the units through its application in different contexts. However to attain this aim, it is necessary to change the way in which our students are using the information, together with the focus given by the different textbooks, because learners frequently work on questions which stimulate neither thought nor their capacity of inquiry. That’s why our mission consists on framing work around such questions which allow them to explore beyond the boundaries of the topic given, and the use of connections that promote the transference of their ideas from one setting to others. Regrettably this aim is not entirely fulfilled in our current system of education, because of the lack of a clear proposal by the curriculum in order to stimulate and encourage the constructivist thinking among the Chilean students. A clear example of that situation is the training received by most of the teachers which includes neither the achievement nor the development of these competences, together with the lack of material that supports them.
Actually the questions formulated in the different textbooks do not help to get to the heart of the things (the essence). On the contrary they frequently stimulate the memorization of the content without giving the possibility to be transferred across other disciplines. This happens because the students can find neither the usefulness nor the purpose of why they have to learn that, causing confusion and lack of commitment by them. Personally I consider that behind the learning and teaching process should exist a reason for, in order that knowledge be enough meaningful to cover most of the students ‘need. If we have a clear target in education, we will surely be able to make the suitable questions which provoke in the students a deep thought, a spirit of inquiry, support their ideas, spark meaningful connections, and transfer power. The idea is to propose a challenger in every one of them in order to put in practice all the previous skills to solve problems, going from the most general questions (overarching questions) to the most specific ones (topical questions). The mixture of the different types of ‘Essential questions’ such as: open and guiding as well as topical and overarching allow the accomplishment of understanding and application of a determined content, because when we have identified one or more topical questions, we need broader questions to take the students beyond the topic’s boundaries, improving their capacity of argument to produce knowledge. Based on that, it is a mistake to consider students as passive actors of the process; on the contrary we must focus our teaching in giving them the right tools to become active ones. If we have clear, what is the role of essential questions, we will see that they are not only used to teach stuff, but to frame our goals in the current system of education.
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My dear colleague:
ReplyDeleteIt is certainly acceptable that one of our duties as educators is to promote inquiry and provoke student’s thought by devicing fundamental questions that enhances going beyond boundaries, as you have said. Likewise, in order that students construct meaning out of the knowledge they are supposed to transfer, it is necessary to start thinking of questions that stimulate not only memory, but also reason, mind and, of course, questions that foster the development of problem solving skills.
I agree on the idea that sometimes teachers do not make adequate use of textbooks and sometimes many of the books we make use of are not even intended to promote active, autonomous learning, nor transferability of knowledge. Thus, it is indispensable to change not only the way we think, but how to generate fundamental questions, with the purpose of provoking inquiry on learners, and this implies changing our scopes on how to teach at classroom level.
essential question are not only the ones that can guide us to the goal of the unit, they are meant to make people (students)think, analyze, provoke inquiry, so they can discuss knowledge, they are able to debate, to express what they need or what on the basis of knowledge. It must be done, so we can have a new society with people who are able to think and talk with fundamnets and knowledge.
ReplyDeleteI also agree on the idea that teachers do not make adequate use of textbooks, but we must remember that textsbooks are just a help, we can reorganize textbook to make them fit on the purpose of our classes, we can change questions, exercises in order get to essential questions.
Jonathan,
ReplyDeleteyou're absolutely right when you mention that behind the teaching/lerning process there must be a reason, a clear objective that students must be able to recognize. Because the idea is to make them work toward their goals and incorporate new knowledge, behaviours and skills that add to their previous learning experiences. All this through clear guided activities which will help them to realize that every step they give is essential in order to accomplish understanding.
Good point my dear!!
I think the most important issue here is the "clear target" in education.
ReplyDeleteMost teachers have not reached an agreement on what the most important is in education. Is it to have better people? Is it to build clever minds? is it to have critical thinkers? good technicians? What the authorities want is clearly seen in the programs... but how does that reach our schools? when that essential question is answered, by all of us who take part of the process, we will have a further step on this continuum which is improving education.
''The idea is that they find real sense to what is learned in every one of the units through its application in different contexts''...yeah I partially agree in this point.Of course the idea is for them to find the meaning of what they are doing and receiving in the classroom,but first they have to have a clear undersatanding of what education is and why they have, need or deserve to play a role on it,(the school, the system)
ReplyDeleteUnless they understand the purpose for them to be there, the rest of the process would be easier, I think.
I totally agree with the idea of finding a real sense to what is learned. I think it’s crucial to provide our students with the needed skills, contents and meaning to provoke in them engagement and as a result understanding in a real context.
ReplyDeleteSo, planning plays an important role to achieve this aim because we as teachers are in charge of provide the space, stimulation to finally students have he possibility to fill the gap between content and reality. Moreover, let them develop the opportunity o learn for life making them active actors in this teaching learning process.
Dear Jonathan,
ReplyDeleteNo doubt this process of asking essential questions to our students is not a simple one.
First of all, you cannot expect to have a single answer for a good overarching question. To illustrate this, elaborating an overarcing question can be very challengng for a teacher, and also demanding for a students since they have to resort to previous knowledge coming from the English sujects or some other subjects or courses. By doing so, they amazingly put into practive some other skills or competences such as criticizing, evaluating reflecting, summarizing etc. This transferability will lead to the precious understanding and then to the Glorious critical thinking part!