On the Importance of Being Inquisitive

In my experience as a Life Sciences undergrad at the National University of Singapore (NUS), I find that many of my classmates are far from inquisitive. During lessons, students shy away from asking questions, eyes darting downwards in response to the lecturer’s “Class, any questions?” and worse — the dreaded silence when the professor throws a question to the audience. It’s strange and counterproductive. At this level of tertiary education, it is crucial that students need to be able to think deeper and ask questions. I feel a deep frustration as a student who is bursting with content and questions to bring to a discussion, but shut down by the fact that no one reciprocates.

This post is fueled by an experience in my Advanced Immunology class. As this is a final year module, the professors added a Journal Club component to the curriculum. For 7 lessons straight, student groups were to present an assigned paper and, as the professors hoped, open up a can of worms for discussion. However, the presentations, lasting more than 50 minutes each, hardly spurred any discussion, evident from the coordinator’s desperate pleas of “class, do ask questions, no questions are too simple!” when met with absolutely no raised hands. This has gone on for five presentations, with the number of questions asked by students totaling to a pathetic less than 10. Why is this happening? Why don’t we ask questions, and what is the point of asking questions in the first place?

What does it mean to be inquisitive?

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “inquisitive” is “Given to inquiry, questioning, or research; of an inquiring turn of mind; desirous of or eager for knowledge; curious.” Curiosity, in turn, “may be defined as a desire to know, to see, or to experience that motivates exploratory behaviour directed towards the acquisition of new information”, as said by Litman and other behavioural psychologists. As such, the word “inquisitive” is closely associated with key terms such as “curiosity”, “exploration”, “learning” and “desire”.

Why don’t we ask more questions?

Many parts of our culture and society instill the wrong mindsets about exploration, that exploration is unwanted. For example, for most of our education here in Singapore, we have been taught that answers in Science and Math were binary, black and white. That is to say that there are only right answers and wrong answers, no in between. In a grade-chasing society like ours, every mark counts, and we simply learnt exactly how to write these perfect answers.

Our lack of freedom of speech also leads to this, where we were told to “keep quiet” as children when we asked questions and expressed opinions. In response, we are conditioned into our adult tendencies — to clam up when asked for opinions and choose not to take a stand. Eventually, like many mental processes, we lose this ability to question everything around us and just accept them as they are.

At its core, the fundamental why behind what we do as students might be missing. To me, being a student is not just about attending classes and churning out good grades. It’s about being a learner and an intellectual. Jason Baehr, a virtue epistemologist and professor of Philosophy, argues that education should aim at fostering ‘intellectual character virtues’ such as curiosity, open-mindedness, intellectual courage, and intellectual honesty. As students, we should be focused on learning how to learn, and falling in love with what we study. Being inquisitive would then come naturally as part of intellectual inquiry.

Why does being inquisitive matter?

But what’s the point of being inquisitive, and why does that matter? Christine Chin mentions that “questioning is key to active and meaningful learning, and is the cornerstone of scientific enquiry”. These questions also help us to make sense of the world and, for us students, help us to fill recognized knowledge gaps and solve problems. Such questions trigger the use of deep-thinking strategies, involving a surprisingly natural use of the all-too-familiar scientific method — hypothesizing, predicting, thought-experimenting and explaining.

During discussions, students who ask questions can stimulate others to employ these deep-thinking strategies, helping us to co-construct knowledge. Being inquisitive also is the cornerstone of research and pushing the limits of human knowledge.

Apart from why being inquisitive matters in the classroom, there have been multiple business cases for curiosity such as this one from Harvard Business Review, where award winning organizational psychology Professor Francesca Gino states that when curiosity is triggered, we make fewer errors in decision-making, we are more innovative and creative, and there are better performance outcomes for teamwork, with reduced group conflict and more open communication.

How can we be more inquisitive?

That said, how can we be more inquisitive? If you are a student, like me, I implore you to think critically (yes, I said the buzzword!). Critical thinking is the ability to think deeper, to question what you read and what you know. I challenge you, in your next class or your next assignment, to ask a few basic questions:

• Is this true?
• What is the author trying to say or prove?
• How can you link this piece of knowledge to a different chapter, topic, or subject?

You can even ask others about their opinions, perspectives and their approaches to the topic. I urge you to participate in class discussions. In this age of Zoom, many can choose to hide behind the virtual barrier of a screen and a muted microphone. Instead of doing this, stay engaged and be inquisitive. Ask questions and share things you find interesting with your classmates and professors.

If, bit by bit, we encourage more curiosity and discussion, I’m sure we can all learn a lot more from one another and move mountains together.

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” — Albert Einstein

Tell me more about your experience with questioning and learning! Let’s be inquisitive and talk more about it.

P.S. You will find that every heading in this blog post is written as a question. That’s on purpose! Ask more questions, people!