What ´s this ? Essential Questions.
We are born with an innate capacity of questioning. From the very beginning, we ask questions tha lead us to understanding the world we live in .Lightbown and Spada (2006) based on Bloom (1991) pointed out that there are developmental stages through which children learn to ask questions. There is a predictable order through which the wh-question emerge. WHAT is the first wh-questions to be used. After that, WHERE and WHO arise very soon. WHY emerges at the end of the second year end becomes a repeated question. As children get awareness of time and manners WHEN and HOW come up. As you see, from the very beginning we are tied to interrogations.
Since questioning is an essential part of our cognitive development , educational designs must include this aspect as a way of achieving understanding, Every single interrogation can spark more questions and stimulate deeper thought. I have to say that I consider this idea quite interesting from the learners´ point of view, because they can take an active part in the process of building knowledge and developing skills on their own.
Considering the Essential Questions as a relevant feature of this kind of design, we can define them as interrogations that point to and highlight big ideas and their main purpose is to promote thinking skills. Students should move certain inner mechanisms in order to answer them. The best questions are the ones that promote understanding of the content of a unit, foster connections and promote transfer of ideas from one setting to another. Therefore Essential Questions must require certain characteristics:
-They must involve questions that cause genuine and relevant inquiry into the big ideas and core content .
-They refer to core ideas and inquires within a discipline
-They require students to consider different alternatives to solve the problems stated in the questions
-They encourage transfer of big ideas from one setting to another.
-They must provoke discussion and deep thought. They must stimulate the emerging of more questions.
- They must foster connection with prior and personal experiences
Taking into consideration the Essential Questions in lesson planning means to be willing to make an effort in terms of developing interrogations that can lead our students to effective skill learning.
In sum, I would say that, Essential Questions are highly related to big ideas which connect the facts and skills, that is to say, they link external events with our personal lives. The best questions can encourage thoughtful and varied students responses and therefore, promote understanding.
I agree, essential questions are fundamental when epecting to develop a critical and creative thinking in our students. This kind of questions will help them to develop not only comprehension but also vocabulary, meaningful understanding and effective strategies in order to convey what they want to convey.
ResponderEliminarand moreover, This way of teaching will be useful for students to develop competence in a second language? we don`t know.
ResponderEliminarthat´s the idea of an essential question, the thing is how we make students to do that!
ResponderEliminarI think this is not only our task,but this is also the whole educational system job.As long as teachers of other subjects like Math and History apply essential questions too,from early childhood to their syllabus, using them will soon become a significant part of our regular practice as both students and teachers.
ResponderEliminarI don't think students need to understand the contents of a unit. I think it's more important to make them use those contents, to develop skills. In my opinion we should create situations were students feel comfortable and confident using English rather than question them.
ResponderEliminaressential questions are not only for us. Students nedd to answer those questions too in order to develop and improve critical thinking.
ResponderEliminar