Questions are the answer
If you start a project and immediately jump to a solution, you will only find more questions and problems. On the other hand, if you start a project with the right set of questions, the solution will invariably present itself. Questions reveal ideas that were previously hidden.
Learning to ask questions is about curiosity, rather than criticism, and it’s always a crucial skill to practice., And, in this moment when AI gives us access to all the information in the world, what now becomes most important is being able to find the right questions to ask to get the best results from AI tools. To use these new tools wisely, we’d do well to listen to Neal Postman, who writes,
“Wisdom does not imply having the right answers. It implies only asking the right questions.”
So how do you learn to ask the right question? I would recommend these three books.
Learning to Question
Paulo Freire
"Because, I repeat, knowledge begins with asking questions. And only when we begin with questions, should we go out in search of answers, and not the other way round."
"What does it mean to ask questions?" into an intellectual game, but to experience the force of the question, experience the challenge it offers, experience curiosity, and demonstrate it to the students. The problem which the teacher is really faced with is how in practice progressively to create with the students the habit, the virtue, of asking questions, of being surprised".
Critical Thinking
bell hooks
"The other challenge is to remember not to feel compelled to respond to every question. My training in academic traditions of public speaking taught me to always answer questions even it I did not know the answer; and if I did not know the answer, to act as if I did. What a horrid teaching practice!"
Teaching As a Subversive Activity
Neil Postman
"Once you have learned how to ask questions—relevant and appropriate and substantial questions—you have learned how to learn and no one can keep you from learning whatever you want or need to know"."Prohibit teachers from asking any questions they already know the answers to. This proposal would not only force teachers to perceive learning from the learner’s perspective, it would help them to learn how to ask questions that produce knowledge."
Are questions the key?
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