POSING
QUESTIONS AS A WAY OF LEARNING …
Thanks for those who has put of posts in the
last few days and weeks. (in PLS's Facebook's page.)
Your posts have caused me to look into my memory files
and bring out stuff that has been buried there. Good posts are like good
questions/queries posed by good students in class. Good queries push the
teacher to dig deeper and also retrieve forgotten material to enlighten the
class better on a topic/theme/issue.
Good
students do not just sit quiet in class. They do their homework and things they
find hard to sort out, they bring to class and ask the teacher for help.
Watch
this: The answers given will not only benefit the student asking, but the whole
class.
Expat
teachers/lecturers often say PNG students are too quiet in class. “They must
learn to ask questions more, and talk more in class, as in giving feedback,”
some say.
I
learnt that tip from a roommate while at university. The roommate was two years
ahead of me.
From
then on, if the tutor asked if there was any question, I always had something
to ask.
Here
is another way of looking at the use of questions as a way to learn.
The
posing of queries as a way to learn is very Greek-like – also from the part of
a teacher. You can imagine Aristotle walking with the student “the future
Alexander the Great” along a stretch of road empty of people for more than an
hour - and the old tutor would examine the student with questions.
The
tutor would then expand with explanation where the student was unsure about
something.
And
of course, a query from the student on something said would take the discussion
along a different topic/theme. But then, that is learning.
I
remember reading something about the American philosopher/educator John Dewey
(I think?) and how he spent almost one hour everyday with a son of his.
He
would come home in the afternoon and the two would go for a walk. The walk was
a question and answer and discussion session.
It
was his duty to examine his son on different topics/issues.
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