Questions, questions everywhere!
Today's skype call had a lovely flow where all participants added and built on the conversation. It was so interesting to hear different view points and thoughts.
One part of the call was on questions. Question words, question what my practice means to me, question the meaning behind something to understand and gain knowledge. I absolutely love the idea that we question to find out more not to find out answers. What we know is always changing therefore we have to keep questioning to remain up to date. If we weren't constantly questioning how would things change? How would we develop in our practice?
Whether its me questioning others or others questioning and challenging me this is a key component of continuous learning which in turn is part of growth, development and evolution. We are born curious, with a thirst for knowledge. The average child asks 73 questions a day*. These questions play an important role in the Childs cognitive development. It's how they learn, a natural instinct and I can honestly say with three young children at home a simple answer is never good enough, its always followed up with more questions. .
Over the last few weeks I have been trying to make sense of the idea of defining my practice. Reflecting and asking myself how I came to be where I am? In doing so I have realized its important when reflecting that I ask the right questions. That I know why I am exploring something? Why is it important I should know a certain thing? What does it mean to me and my practice and what is the outcome? It is very easy to veer off course and ask questions that are perhaps irrelevant and then become lost in an abundance of information so I personally feel in terms of defining my practice I have to question to find out more but make sure they are the right questions.
Questions are what make us grow but in contradiction to the above I do also believe there sometimes comes a point where you have to pause and be careful not to question too much and trust that (for now) you have enough information. Do you agree?
* Information from https://www.studyfinds.org/children-parents-questions/
Hi Jen I loved to read your perspective about questioning from a mothers point of view! As children we do question everything, so why as an adult are we ok to accept one answer instead of exploring a range of answers?
ReplyDeleteI think as adults we should ask questions all the time, if you don't ask you'll never know. I know I struggled with that, even at sixth form, I rarely put my hand up and asked questions at the fear of 'being wrong' or 'asking a stupid question', really from a teachers perspective, no question is a stupid one...because if they are asking it, a student doesn't know or understand fully yet.
ReplyDeleteI like you're idea of sometimes trusting that you have enough information, there's not enough hours in the day to learn it all! Rhi xx
Hi Jen, lovely post. I get what you mean about veering off course with your questions. I find I keep going off on a tangent in my notebook but I'm not worrying too much about it and letting the thoughts fall out onto paper. Some might be relevant now, some might be later and others might be nonsense but good to get out of the way!
ReplyDeleteHi Jen, loved your post. It is true that sometimes we can veer off with questions but I guess that is where reflection also comes in to help you refocus on what you want to explore.
ReplyDeleteI really liked what you said about children always questioning as it's their natural disposition to be curious and when you answer they just want more and more! I think as adults we are expected to 'know' things as society tells us this is how it should be, and so we are almost discouraged from questioning. But our brains and cognitive skills have developed since childhood, so logically surely we should be asking more questions? Or better questions?? Maybe that's why we can veer off but still come back ? Something to explore! x
I completely agree with what you said at the end, it's so important to ask questions all the time about everything we do otherwise we never grow and we never learn but I do agree that there comes a time when you have to trust that you have ENOUGH knowledge to make informed decisions.
ReplyDeleteHi Jen, love this blog and yes although not a mum yet myself, having taught 'littlies' for a while now I know that the questions never stop with a one word aswer. I myself have taken its upon myself while teaching to ask the questions back to the students so they look for their answer, rather than me telling them. I am a very inquisitive (maybe nosey some might say) person. And I know that knowledge is power. The more you know the better you will be. So I think asking questions is a great way to perhaps in a way get rid of the assumptions we have built up?
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