There's no substitute for childlike questions in science

Science is driven by curiosities much like the questions children have that come out of their honest curiosities about the world.  Curiosities are worth developing throughout schooling through inquiry based learning.

Those of you who have been to the Guided Inquiry Design Institute in the past two years have heard me read aloud from this book  Lab Girl. In this novel, Hope Jahren, a geobiologist and author, has a way of telling a story that weaves story, science, and life together.  It's also filled with her expert knowledge of plants.  Things you'd never know and are fascinating bits about the plant world that will inspire more curiosities in you as you read.

Recently on BigThink she did an interview where she said that the childlike kid questions driven by curiosity are what are at the core of science.  

She says the wonderful thing about science is how surprising and pleasing it is to think about something you know, but you haven't "turned it over in your mind" in such a way as to examine it with new eyes.  I love this. 

Hope Jahren video on BigThink

Inquiry based learning like Guided Inquiry Design gives our students the opportunity to turn things they know over and over and look at many sides of things that they didn't know existed when they saw it only from one angle. 

Through the first phase of Guided Inquiry, we introduce our students to something somewhat familiar, a concept that resonates with them.  In the second phase, we design the experience so we offer some new information to help our learners expand what they know through experiences in the field, or science labs, or a visit to a museum, or by examining objects. Armed with some new information, having turned what they know over a bit, they then reach out to explore what it means to them and what might be interesting to them about these ideas they are turning over.  They identify a curious question, research that question, and create something to communicate their new understanding to the world. Through this process our students have opportunities in GID to engage in new ways of thinking about the world. 

Hope Jahren places a strong scientific value on the "childlike" questions that are driven from curiosities.  She says that buried deep down in the answers to those seemingly simple questions, like "Why don't trees like that grow at my house?" are applications to some new discovery about how to grow food, or use something in the marketplace, or for medicine, or in construction... The implications of those simple questions can be addressed by experts in different areas, and the knowledge gained from those core questions help many to apply the information to innovate.

In schools , of course, we are always reaching for the deeper better question.  Avid has offered a guide by leveling questions. These guides created by educators can be a helpful starting place.

But, I wonder if we can analyze questions differently.  What if we used interest and curiosity as one of our main measures of a great question?  Of course, we want it to be deep, which can be addressed by thinking about -
1. Can it be easily answered? Is the answer easily found and answered by a few simple facts?  If so, students may need a little more probing. into that question to let the curiosity bubble out.

But I think what's maybe even more important is....Is there true curiosity in the student's question? So, how do we get to, how curious is this student? 

Curiosity lies in their interest.

So we can think about:
2.  Does the student want to know about this? How much?
Is it related to their life in some way? How do we know?

But, how can you tell if it truly comes from students' curiosities... 
True curiosity lies in the Third Space- the question that comes out of my curiosities comes from my real life, has a connection to me, and the content we are talking about. In turn, I have a lot of interest in answering this question. 

So, asking kids to tell you, 'how interested are you in this question,' might help us to know how curious are they about it. You can simply ask if they are interested in this question.
Or, you can even have them rate it on a scale from 1 not so much  10 REALLY interested.  If we can get to the upper levels of this scale, I think we've nailed a curious question.

Jahren says there is no substitute for a curious question and they have great value to science, scientists and even experts in their field. 

So stay curious inquirers and have fun playing with this in your work with students.

Leslie Maniotes, PhD

Having an Inquiry Stance

Educators (teachers, librarians, and school leaders) who use an inquiry approach to teaching and learning in schools today have a leg up on those who don't.

Why?  Because inquiry requires that students ask questions and investigate  to learn from those questions.  Through that process students learn how to find, evaluate, and use information.  Some people call this information literacy.  Information literacy is one of the top literacies necessary for this time and age.  We can find all kinds of information so easily- the trick is to evaluate it and use it well (hint- good librarians are awesome at this!).  

Using an inquiry model, we can guide students to become experts of using information through all content areas.  Inquiry Educators take a step back to re-evaluate all their practices and see if they are aligned with an Inquiry Stance so they aren't imposing structures or old habits that might be counter productive to their students learning.

There are some things that traditional teachers used to do during research that would be counter productive to inquiry learning. (See the left column below.)

Educators who use an inquiry approach, like Guided Inquiry Design assume an inquiry stance when planning and thinking about what activities, assignments, resources, and mindsets to use with students. (See the right column below.)  

Look at the chart below. Where do you stand?  Is there anything that you might want reconsider? 

EDUCATORS Who Take an Inquiry Stance 

Don’t	Do
DON'T  Think that students have their question at the beginning of the work.	Collaboratively design engaging experiences that allow students to become curious, interested, and knowledgeable before they get to the big questions. GID in Action Open & Immerse
DON'T Ask for specific the number and type of sources on the paper/project (Your paper will have 10 references)	Focus students on gathering multiple sources and perspectives on information.  Focus on the depth of understanding to determine if students need more information sources.
DON'T Constrain the types of resources required. (Your paper/project will include 5 database articles, 4 newspaper articles, and 3 primary sources.)	Recognize that the resources will be organically dictated by the question that the student asked
DON'T Only curate resources for students  (and not allow them to search on their own)	Have students  searching for,  evaluating  and curating their own sources for information and research
DON'T Set students off to identify their question on their own - (Here's a list of topics- pick one and go do your research!)	Confer with students about their question once they have had some time to explore their own interests in the topic
DON'T Assess students based on the product alone	Observe students interactions during the process to guide them. Recognize signs like optimism, frustration, procrastination, increased interest, clarity, lack of confidence, increasing confidence, sense of accomplishment (Kuhlthau, 2004)

Inquiry is Essential for Learners Today

Think about it.

You are taking a walk and you see something that makes you wonder- what kind of plant, or bug or animal is that....
You're planning a trip and are looking for the best route, or best restaurants along the way.
Or you hear or read about something you aren't sure about...
Or your mother calls and tells you about a diagnosis your father just got from the doctor, it's an odd sounding diagnosis, one that you've never heard of.

What do you do? You pick up your phone and search. What comes up? Some articles, maybe images, perhaps some blogs or newspaper articles, or a general article from wikipedia.  How do you know which ones are worth reading?

It depends! It depends upon the question you asked and the information available. For example, with the medical information, we know we'd get reliable information from a reputable institution like the Mayo Clinic or John's Hopkins University.  WebMD might have some information, but we might want to cross check that with what's listed on the Mayo Clinic site.
We do this every day.  ALL the time.

So, if we do this all the time as adults, are our students learning that this is how we learn?  Are we giving our students opportunities to ask questions, search for information to understand their questions and learn from them?  Are we allowing them to search the internet and library resources to answer their own questions?  Are we giving them opportunities to mess about in the information context to figure out what is worth reading and paying attention to and not? Are we giving them tools to handle themselves well in this information context (how to find and evaluate information sources)?

I'd argue that today this is one of the essential learnings that we should be teaching all our children and we really miss this opportunity all the time.

If not we are missing a huge opportunity to teach students how to learn from information.  If we are teaching them facts that they can get easily from a quick search on their device and off the internet, like what are plate tectonics, or when was the civil war we are doing them a HUGE disservice. They can find that information so now we can be asking them deeper questions and they can ask deeper questions that they are interested in learning about.

How do we learn today? We learn by asking our own questions, seeking information to understand those questions and creating meaning for ourselves.

We learn through inquiry, folks.  Inquiry is really important for our students to be engaging in within the school context.

If you agree, and want to learn more come check out Guided Inquiry Design, a complete program for learning standards based content, the skills described here, and so much more.

Thanks for reading.
Leslie Maniotes, PhD
@lesliemaniotes