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Two weeks ago, my 7-year-old son and I visited the NASA Space Center. He's a space fan and can name various rockets. While I'm not a fan of rockets, I still wanted to engage in conversation with him, so I started asking questions: What's the difference between this rocket and that one? How are rockets transported to the launch center? What happens if a rocket get lost in space and can't return? I didn't expect a 7-year-old child to answer these questions so adeptly! There were things he didn't know, but he would make guesses, and I found his guesses to be quite reasonable! While I was amazed at how much rocket knowledge my child knew, I also wondered: At what point do adults lose their curiosity about the world and gradually stop asking questions?
Image by Luxin Xue
Berger, W. (2014). A more beautiful question: The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas [Photograph]. Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/More-Beautiful-Question-Inquiry-Breakthrough/dp/1620401452
Until I played a Quickfire questioning game (set a timer for 5 minutes and write as many questions as possible) and read Warren Berger's book "A More Beautiful Question," I found some answers. The book mentions: "In our increasingly complex and rapidly changing world, questioning will become more and more important. However, for various reasons, most schools do not teach students how to question, and students are not rewarded for asking questions; only remembering answers will reward them"(Berger, 2014) This is also the education I received from childhood to adulthood: memorize textbook knowledge and teacher's words, do more workbooks, and I will get good grades. Reflecting on my own teaching, I ask students a lot of questions every day, and use various pedagogies to stimulate their thinking and gradually guide them to think and say what I want them to say. This is quite important in teaching, but is there another approach: teacher proposes a question related to a unit topic, and students ask more questions around that question but cannot answer it. The goal is to train students' divergent thinking and the ability to ask good questions. When playing the Quickfire game, I inadvertently used this method of questioning: I first thought of the book I recently read, “Sovjetistan” and the question that came to mind while reading was: What causes differences and alienation between people? Then I wondered if there would be a third world war? This led to questioning how to stop bullying at school, and the notion of inherent goodness in humans as stated in the Three Character Classic. As I wrote out these questions, I was completely unaware of the connection between these four questions; my brain must have been "deceiving" me!
In the 5-minute Quickfire game, I found that asking questions was more difficult than I had imagined! In the first minute, I couldn't come up with any questions. I thought of the book I've recently read that I came up with the first question about alienation between people. Interestingly, the second, third, and fourth questions came one after. As I noticed time was running out, I began to write more freely and randomly. I found that asking questions within a set time frame is harder because I was engaged in free thinking. Questions that come to mind in freedom are the ones I truly care about and want to find answers to. I believe these are called "good questions." Students ask many questions every day. During team meetings, colleagues share problems and we come up with solutions. Across various professions, we are surrounded by countless questions every day, but not all of them are "good questions." According to Berger's definition, "a good question is one that reveals ambition but is also actionable; it can change the way we perceive or think about things, serving as a catalyst for change"(Berger, 2014). The "why-if-how" questioning framework can help us clarify the underlying logic of a problem, change our way of thinking, and thereby prompt change. I want to try using this framework to explain the question of "how to accomplish a round-the-world trip," a question that everyone wants to achieve and find actionable solutions for. Why do I want to travel around the world? Because I'm deeply interested in history, geography, and politics. If I save $200 each month, which amounts to $2,400 a year, where could I go during the summer vacation? How can I ensure I save $200 every month? This is just a simple thought loop, and this questioning framework can help me address almost all the questions on my list!
Quickfire Questions
Image by Luxin Xue
Created using Canva.
References:
Berger, W. (2014). A more beautiful question: The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas [Photograph]. Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/More-Beautiful-Question-Inquiry-Breakthrough/dp/1620401452
Berger, W. (2014). A more beautiful question: The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas (Reprint ed.). Bloomsbury USA.
Xue, L. (2024). NASA photo [Photograph].
Xue, L. (2024). Quickfire Questions [Photograph]. Created using Canva.
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