The Power of Questions: 4 Traits of Learning Communities with Deeply Engaged Learners

http://etale.org/main/2015/04/09/the-power-of-questions-4-traits-of-learning-communities-with-deeply-engaged-learners/

Posted on April 9, 2015 by Bernard Bull

While this is far too simplistic, amid my visits to various current and emerging models of schooling, I’ve come to loosely categorize types of schools. One factor that seems to be among the more telling has to do with the role of questions in the schools. Are they encouraged? Are they celebrated? Who asks the most questions? How do the questions shape and inform everything else that happens? What types of questions do people ask? Do questions evoke excitement or anxiety? As I look at learning organizations from the perspective of questions, I’ve consistently noticed four traits that tend to have a huge impact on the extent to which learners are deeply engaged in inquiry, even getting lost in the explorations, and taking ownership for much of their learner. I’ll frame those four traits in the form of four questions