Questions are a part of your everyday life, and have been since they day you were born. How old are you? How was your first day of school? Where are you going to apply? What are you wearing tonight? Questions are important, but of even more importance in learning and education is essential questions. What is an essential question? Big, powerful, driving and guiding questions. What is the difference between a question and an essential question?An essential question generates discussion, deeper thinking and wondering about the subject as a whole rather then just the specific question that is being asked.
Understanding and being able to ask essential questions is a life skill that is necessary for people of all ages. Whether it is a child wondering about how the world works, or even a parent asking about how the child's day was, without essential questions it is very difficult for the person to learn and have an intelligent conversation. For example, if a parent asks its child "How was school?' 9 times out of 10 you will get a single worded answer. However if they were to ask a driving question such as "What was something interesting that you learned in Mrs. Smith's class today?" By asking a 'rich complex question with no single answer' you will get into a discussion that will last more then a couple of minutes.
It is not just in social form where essential questions are valuable, An essential question forces children to use higher order thinking while addressing the question. Many times educators ask essential questions at the beginning of a unit, not only to find out what the students already know but also in order to get the students using higher level thinking, and associate what they already know with other topics within a subject. Essential questions can be the beginning of and can provide inquiry based, problem based and project based curriculum. Teachers will often post questions in prominent places within the classroom and refer to them throughout the unit. Often educators will also involve students when developing the questions, so that the students understand what they will be learning about in the specific unit and have a higher sense of ownership towards the topic.
Essential questions are very crucial to our lives as university students. Have you ever had that one professor who is very opinionated and is always right even though their views are different from yours and you do not see the world in the same way. You have to learn to question authority figures; they are not always right. There is not always a right or wrong answer. Through learning, discovering and asking essential questions, it allows you to critically analyze the situation and develop your own opinion and answers to the questions that you might have had.
References:
Drake, S.M. & Reid, J.L. & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving curriculum and classroom assessment: Engaging the 21 Century Learner. Toronto, ON: Oxford University Press.
Susan Drake. (October 2, 2014) Personal Communications. Brock University.
