The value of the Questions in Learning
«Judge a man for his questions instead of for his answers.»
Voltaire
The traditional educational system, has as a central axis of the teaching process to the teacher, who imparts to his students a content and knowledge whose domain will be later evaluated through questions that admit only one answer.
In a context like this, the teacher is the owner of the truth, which is passively accepted by the students, because there is no space for questioning, criticism or the generation of new ideas or new knowledge.
However, there is a different alternative to this way of learning: Accelerated Learning, a methodology in which the focus, attention and objectives are placed on the student, their needs and interests. That is why they are encouraged to participate, to discuss, to give their opinions and to ask questions.
The question is a valuable learning tool because it is closely related to curiosity, creativity, innovation and investigative attitude. And is that the power of the question is greater than the power of the answer.
The formulation of questions of a different nature and purpose, generates a learning context in which students are actively involved and take responsibility for what they learn. In addition, it allows and promotes different levels of information processing and the development of critical thinking, characterized by being reflective, conceptually rich, coherent, persistent and exploratory.
Asking questions also requires learning, and it is the teachers who must, in the first place, carry out that learning in order to guide their students in their personal process of learning to formulate them.
A powerful question causes impact, challenges and engages students in the search for answers. It is formulated from a context or situation that generates interest and curiosity, that invites analysis, discussion and exchange of ideas and requires the application of acquired knowledge.
A correctly formulated question, stimulates the exploration of concepts and ideas that, in turn, lead to the development of creative thinking. In addition, it allows generating answers with a greater degree of complexity in cognitive and linguistic terms.
The more questions are asked, the greater the power they will achieve, especially when it comes to open questions, which demand a greater degree of elaboration and abstraction, since in general terms, they involve establishing relationships or issuing judgments and opinions based on information or knowledge that is already possessed.
Many times, more than the answer or the result obtained, the reasoning that occurs during the process has more value, because it can lead to the posing of new problems that had not been considered before.
Instead of giving answers, let’s give our Learning Partners new questions that open spaces for new encounters, new scenarios and new dialogues.
Accompany them in their exploration, in their creative search for answers that can satisfy not only their own concerns, but also yours.
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