Why do We Stop Questioning?

While reading Warren Berger’s book, A More Beautiful Question, I began wondering if the typical classroom is set up to encourage student questioning. Not much has changed about the setup of a classroom or the delivery of instruction over the last one hundred fifty years despite dramatic changes in careers and available technology. In fact, it seems everything about the world has changed except the classroom. With so much extreme change in the world around us I wonder if it is time to change the way we set up our classroom. The two videos below ask the same question.

Berger explains that schools were designed to educate people who would work in factories, so the classroom was modeled after a factory. When this idea is taken to the extreme he asks “if schools were built on a factory model, were they actually designed to squelch questions?” (2014 p. 48). If the work force was expected to fulfill their job without questions, it would make sense for their education to discourage active questioning. One hundred fifty years ago, this might have been good enough. Today we need to encourage our students to ask questions and teach them to find or develop answers to those questions.

There are so many expectations on both teachers and students today that might limit the freedom that could naturally encourage questioning, but we often have limited abilities to adjust those expectations. I have tried to restructure my class to encourage students to approach their education differently. I have tables rather than chairs, and some of those tables are low enough to the ground that students sit on the floor. Through this I have seen students change groups on their own and work with others who have a different perspective on the problem they are working to solve. This has naturally encouraged more questions. Students ask their peers more questions work together to find the answers rather than asking fewer questions and expecting me to provide the answers.

Beyond the physical arrangement of my room I have spent time answering questions during my lesson. To encourage more questioning from students it is important they those questions are seen as valuable and important. It is not always possible, but as often as I am able I will pause my lesson to research and answer a student question that is interesting and related in some way to the lesson. If I cannot pause the lesson, or the question is not related to what students are learning, I write down student’s questions and work to find an answer when I can spend some time researching. Often I am able to research some while they are working independently. When I am able to do this I feel that it continues to encourage my students to ask questions because they are important enough for me to spend the time trying to answer them.

Along with adjusting the arrangement of the classroom and taking time to answer student questions, instructional methods can be adjusted to encourage questioning. As a gifted specialist, I have more freedom than the typical classroom teacher. With this freedom I have been able to incorporate more Problem-Based Learning (PBL) where students work to solve a problem. Most of the time these problems are large, real-world, problems that they can relate to like “How can we improve our city’s public transportation?” To solve a problem like this students have to ask questions. As they work through the problem-solving process, students find that the first set of answers leads to a new set of questions. And as is true with wicked questions, there is never a final answer. Students find there is always another question to be asked.

Our world has changed, but our classrooms have stayed the same. I think by changing how our classrooms look and function we can encourage students to ask more, and better, questions.

References:

Berger, W. (2014). A More Beautiful Question: The Power Of Inquiry To Spark Breakthrough Ideas. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Humble Beast. (2015, Feb 5). Propaganda – Board of Education (@humblebeast @prophiphop)[Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/RD2o6soOe1I

Prince Ea. (2016, Sep 26). I JUST SUED THE SCHOOL SYSTEM !!![Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/dqTTojTija8

An EpicWin for Organization

For a student with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) organization and follow through on multi-step instructions are major challenges in the typical classroom. Students with ADHD often have weak executive functioning, which makes it more difficult for a student to “control impulses, regulate emotions and actions, determine appropriate behavior, regulate attention, and follow through with a plan” (68). Additionally, “children with executive functioning challenges have less intrinsic motivation,” which makes it more difficult for teachers to encourage these students to meet classroom expectations and follow given instructions (68).

I currently work with gifted students in grades 1-6. Many traits of gifted students, especially gifted boys, mirror the traits of a student with ADHD. Each day I work with students in terms of encouraging appropriate impulse control and behavior, as well as aiding in the development of systems that encourage them to follow multi-step instructions. Many of the challenges these students face academically stem from their daily struggles to follow directions or complete assignments due to their lack of organization. The iPad app EpicWin supports student’s organization through a highly motivating, quest based, “gamified” experience.

The app EpicWin will assist students with ADHD in completing assignments, following multi-step instructions, and meeting personal goals for classroom behavior. Quests can be set up in the app that match the assignments and goals a student has each day. Experience points are assigned to each quest and awarded after a student successfully completes each task. As students earn more experience, their avatar will level up and earn loot. These quests can be set up quickly after new instructions are given, they can be created to repeat on an assigned day, or they can be deleted if they are no longer needed.

Lack of organization is one of the largest factors in academic success for my students with ADHD. Completed work might be left in their desk, homework can be either forgotten at school or left at home, and work can be completed incorrectly after the student has lost track of the directions. EpicWin supports students and helps track their daily organization by providing the external motivation necessary to complete these tasks. Murphy discusses the benefits of providing a checklist to aid students in completing assigned tasks. Adding this checklist to the app will also provide engaging motivation and immediate feedback for students as they complete each step.

The “gamification” of daily tasks is the best aspect of this app. Each time a small, easily forgotten task is completed the in-game avatar earns experience, progresses farther down its’ path on the map, and periodically earns gold or other loot. Like many video games, there is a page that records all of the loot you have earned and shows spaces for the remaining loot you can earn. Along with leveling your character up, this serves as motivation to continue questing. Through this quest system students will be reminded of tasks or instructions that they might struggle to keep track of.

The app also teaches students more responsibility long-term by incorporating independence into students’ work gradually. Teaching students to keep track of their work and assignments will lead to more long-term academic success. Students with ADHD might struggle with day-to-day organization throughout their entire academic experience. After introducing this app and allowing a student to get comfortable checking their quest log, they can begin adding their own quests. The eventual goal being students independently adding a new quest as assignments or new directions are given.

While this app is user friendly, it does take time to add each task or reminder, and it will require the classroom teacher to monitor its use. There are no safeguards to ensure that a task was completed before gaining the experience set for each task. And the set experience can be adjusted quickly after assigning a new task. To account for this, I would plan to set up a daily record keeping system to simply record the amount of possible experience at the beginning of the day and the actual earned experience at the end of the day.

Organization and multi-step task completion is a daily struggle for students with ADHD. Having a system in place, similar to a checklist that reminds them what the next step in an assignment is, supports their overall academic success. With EpicWin students have a list they can use to track assignments and daily tasks that provide immediate feedback and motivation.

Click here to view if the embedded video above does not show correctly.

Murphy, Shelly (2014). Grades 1 Through 3 Finding the Right Fit: Inclusive Strategies for Students with Characteristics of ADHD. National Association for the Education of Young Children, Vol. 69 (No. 3).Pages 66-71. http://www.jstor.org/stable/ycyoungchildren.69.3.66.