Asking questions can be hard. I think we’re taught, unwittingly, that asking questions – betraying lack of knowledge – is a sign of weakness. Teachers, parents, mentors want answers from you, not questions.
Which is ironic, because I think one of the things teachers most want is to be asked for help. Teaching is, after all, their expertise.
Asking questions helps teachers target their teaching to your needs.
Asking questions helps show teachers you are interested in learning and achieving.
Asking questions helps you frame your knowledge and the holes in it.
Asking questions helps.
In seventh grade, I failed a writing assignment because I didn’t understand it and I didn’t know how to ask my teacher for help. A few questions would have solved my problem but I was too afraid of showing that vulnerability. I think I’ve gotten better in the years since, though it’s still hard. I certainly have come to be more comfortable in the realm of not-knowing, of searching for answers.
More than anything, I know that I want to hear questions from my own students. It’s how I know what’s reaching them. It’s how I know how to teach them more effectively, and it’s how I know they’ve been working on their own to get better. (You always find that question when you’re on your own, don’t you?)
Students: ask more questions.
Teachers: celebrate the questions more. Honor the bravery, encourage the asking, and use the questions to guide your teaching.