Fostering Future-Ready Skills with Questioning and PBL

Schools and questioning seem to go hand in hand, but unfortunately, our schooling systems still request more answers from students than questions. In “A More Beautiful Question”, Warren Berger explores how we educate students by asking “Can a school be built on questions?” (p. 50). Berger speaks to Deborah Meier, who models schools around questions. She advocates that students need to “become critical thinkers and problem solvers” (p. 51). These skills are essential to prepare students to enter a world filled with problems awaiting creating solutions.

Berger also studies schools that incorporate inquiry-based learning. Within these schools, there is an “emphasis on letting students explore, direct their own learning, and work on projects instead of tasks” (p. 54). Berger also discusses that teachers feel “pressure to follow mandated guidelines” (p.47), which often discourages flexibility for teachers and students. He goes on to say that if teachers feel inquiry-based learning is necessary for students, they must “engage in small acts of defiance-going off script in their lessons, sometimes revising the standard texts and teaching materials” (p. 55). As an educator, this statement makes me feel empowered. If we are to generate change in our educational systems, it can begin with teachers standing behind methods they believe in.

I believe project-based learning can help foster creativity, critical thinking, and questioning skills in students. Last year, I attempted a project-based learning unit with my students. Through professional development seminars, I was exposed to Dr. Nell Duke’s Information in Action kits. Information in Action kits are “designed to help teachers learn to teach informational reading and writing using a project-based approach”. Below is a link to a video of Dr. Nell Duke speaking about Information in Action (scroll to the bottom of the page):

http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/information-in-action/index.htm

I tried a persuasive writing unit from the kit with my students. Students were exposed to the problem that senior citizens struggle to exercise, but there are many health benefits of doing so. Students then conducted research about the topic and eventually completed a persuasive writing pamphlet to share with a group of local senior citizens. I saw many positive effects in my students. Student engagement and quality of work was high, and students felt empowered when sharing their writing pieces with an authentic audience.

 
I did, however, see a few problems with the unit I implemented into my classroom. First, the problem didn’t come from the students. I exposed them to the problem and asked them to consider the questions “Why should senior citizens exercise?” and “How can we convince senior citizens to exercise?” I wonder what would happen if I allowed students to use their questioning skills to launch a project-based learning unit. I would like students to be more involved with deciding what they study based on their interests or problems.

Image Source

Second, students were all asked to create a pamphlet to convince seniors to exercise. While writing a pamphlet is one way to accomplish this goal, I would like to allow students more flexibility in this area. Students could create a slideshow, video, commercial, graphic, or poster to develop their opinion writing skills. While the Information in Action project-based learning provided me with a structure to project-based learning units, I would like to create my own unit that is more student-driven. I would like the basis for the unit to come directly from my students. Their questions will be able to drive the entire unit forward.

While I believe project-based learning to be beneficial to my students, I am also expected to meet curriculum expectations. I find it challenging to find extra time for project-based learning when our curriculum is demanding. This makes me wonder if I can integrate important teaching points from my curriculum into a project-based learning unit. I would be teaching students the same objectives, but allowing them the freedom to learn in a different way.

I believe that project-based learning can help educators take steps toward building schools around questions (p. 50). In the future, I hope to implement project-based learning units that derive from students’ questions and allow students be creative when presenting their learning. Integrating project-based learning with existing curriculum seems a daunting and demanding task, but worth attempting to save students’ willingness and ability to ask questions and develop solutions.

References:

Berger, Warren. (2014) A More Beautiful Question. (pp.1-70). New York, NY: Bloomsbury USA

Buck Institute for Education. (2010, December 9). Project Based Learning: Explained [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMCZvGesRz8

Information in Action. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/nkduke/publications/information-in-action

Potter, Susan. (Photographer). (2010, November 29). Questions [digital image]. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/dandelionandrain/5217554542/in/photolist-8X4kbW-4rNnxf-v6AVH-eJ2wkS-eJ2H39-xQmp5B-7yxgKj-c3i6Pw-5tJpn1-65J5RS-97NBiz-agd8UA-5qHXLc-bA5JRa-4miYff-5dBTc7-6Hb721-6d4YVE-7cps6Y-9YLQSk-4nsU2t-2gvJoq-57idc4-36hQQK-7qyQw6-B4zu-7QpV8y-9wdqmY-6BAgnE-UkcfNh-ecD3Hq-GWsRB-6pnmr8-pdQ1i-4JGRCo-8DTxQT-hqVAJf-dfUJuV-Wqwior-DjHyD-f1F2PU-cNre5b-5TmjP7-CLYx-4eCRRZ-Ed5k-5YKyQs-9VGwmw-7Vtkjc-4tS9o9