Essential questions help teachers stay focus on big ideas. These questions need to transfer deep understanding to the students and must be answerable as well as to be a sort of "doorway" that leads students to the exploration of core concepts of a certain content.
I understand by this, that in some way students are encouraged to debate, analyze and criticize their understanding of an issue in order to stimulate their deep thinking and relate content, thus, improve their high-cognitive skills. Of course, questions should be shaped around the objective(s) of the unit or they wouldn’t be focused.
I think that these type of inquiries and discussions should be made also by the part of the students, especially teenagers. Why not give them the tools to make "essential questions" on a certain topic by themselves? It's important that students be autonomous critical thinkers because it is something that they will need throughout their lives, not only at school, but also outside of it.
Students need to have the tools to deal with problematic daily issues e.g. drugs, alcohol, morality, etc. only if they have been given appropriate ground and guidance and make them feel their questions are always acceptable.
very good point. Students need to discuss such important topics with a good and appropriate guidance!
ReplyDeleteYup! Instead of following pointless activities, answering deepless questions which answers can be found in the texts, students - specially teens- should be encouraged to develop critical thinking skills....something that is totally lacking in them are good opinions about important matters
ReplyDeleteGood appropriate guidance means teaching them how to debate,
ReplyDeleteanalyze and most importantly to think critically. I agree
with your point of view but there must be a change in the
way English is being taught in many schools/universities
where there is little or no reading activities at all.
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ReplyDeleteAs teachers we are models too. So it is very necessary to discuss with our students interesting, real and up -date topics.
ReplyDeleteIt's time to make our students be more autonomous and enhance the critical thinking, but we need a deep change for the sake of a better education.
ReplyDeleteI always will insist in the same inquiry:
ReplyDeleteWe just talk what we are supssed to do, but never we talk how we are really going to do it...
I think our debate is not only about making those what we call "essential questions" but in how we can achieve those questions and how to students can achieve them, too... It's a topic we are not concerned in, but totally necesary before proposing what we "have to" do...
Maybe, the goals are just unreachable with few hours. My students have 5 pedagogical hours a week and they do not even know how to make a simple question. How come can I teach them to think in English if most of the time they just would look at you as if they were paying attention? Maybe they just want to get the specific information to do well in tests and our intentions are a bit further or greater than that.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you, we have to enhance critical thinking in our students.They need to contribute in their learning process.
ReplyDelete