Essential Questions

“Asking questions is a very good way to find out about something.”
--Kermit, the Frog

John Dewey, the premier educational reformer and pragmatist of the first half of the 20th century, would be smiling to see the paradigm shift taking place in education today. He believed that knowledge and learning should be authentic and integrated into the lives of students, and as a result, society would benefit. He emphasized experience in the learning process and believed that problem solving and critical thinking skills are essential to a true depth of understanding. Using essential questions for learning definitely fits into Dewey’s educational philosophy.

Theodore Sizer, Dean of Brown University School of Education, conceived of the use of essential questions as a way to improve the knowledge and skills of high school students in his book Horace’s Compromise published in 1984. Using essential questions in teaching and learning has become one of the cornerstones of educational reform.

What do we mean by using essential questions? Jamie McKenzie, a proponent of educational reform and technology integration and the creator of the research model, the Research Cycle, says that “the question is the answer.” As editor of the online educational technology journal, From Now On, McKenzie says this:

"Essential questions reside at the top of Bloom's Taxonomy. They require
students to EVALUATE (make a thoughtful choice between options, with the choice based upon clearly stated criteria), to SYNTHESIZE (invent a new or different
version) or to ANALYZE (develop a thorough and complex understanding through
skillful questioning).Essential questions spark our curiosity and sense of
wonder. They derive from some deep wish to understand something which matters to us.”

Any high school English teacher trying to teach the research process knows the frustration that the new technology brings. We live in a cut-and-paste world where students learn how to paraphrase very well. Real research requires the higher order thinking skills that essential questions demand.

Working essential questions into lesson plans is an excellent way to begin changing our teaching strategies. Instead of the lecture/note-taking model, essential questions shift the emphasis to a student-centered learning environment. With essential questions, we are no longer looking for one right answer but are providing an atmosphere for our students to create new knowledge. As a strategy for teaching and learning, there is no limit as to the content area or level. For example, we can use essential questions to teach and learn about the Puritans. In addition to the factual information we learn about Puritans, we can make our understanding more relevant and authentic if we ask essential questions:

How do you think the Puritans would incorporate technology into their lives?
What would the Puritans think of the powerful evangelical right’s
involvement in politics today?
From what you know, what would be the best
and the worst things about being a Puritan?

These are examples of jumping off points that will lead to more questions and take our learning from a linear to a cyclical experience. Essential questions like these allow us to make connections to our own lives. If we pursue a study of this kind, we come to perceive Puritans as real human beings. Our understanding is deepened and spurs more curiosity.

Clifford and Friesen of the Galileo Educational Network point out that an essential question is “always poised at the boundary of the known and the unknown. It engages the imagination in significant ways. Attempts to answer an essential question open up mysteries that successively reveal themselves the more we come to ‘know’.”

Teaching and learning strategies that prompt us to become life-long learners who reach for insight and profound meaning, are worth the effort. As promoters of information literacy, librarians and teachers can help students use essential questions as higher order thinking skills that will result in meaningful, authentic learning.