The Transformative Power of Inquiry
Asking questions of ourselves and the world can open the door to powerful learning and growth.
Prof. Muldavin stood at the front of the lecture hall the first day of class and asked “What is international development?” I was a frustrated philosophy major, tired of memorizing theorems from distant times, places, and people. I wanted to know why humans act the way we do. My philosophy courses weren’t helping with that question.
Prof. Muldavin’s geography course was different. He spent ninety minutes facilitating an exploration of international development. Most students offered answers related to reducing poverty, building infrastructure, and meeting basic human needs. Prof. Muldavin probed our responses. What soon became clear was that our perspectives were shaped by our assumptions about ourselves, the world, and our place within it. There was no definitive answer because, before we knew it, we were asking “What’s the meaning of life?” My mind was blown. And, my transformation had begun.
Principle of Learning and Teaching #5:
We should strive not to have an answer for every question, but a question for every answer.
Effective learning is a cyclical process. We ask questions, explore those questions academically and experientially, and develop as much understanding as we can. The cycle begins again when we interrogate that understanding with new questions.
When our goal is to understand ourselves, the world, and our place within it, this inquiry process must look inward as well as outward. It isn’t enough to think critically about the world. We also have to examine the assumptions that shape how we perceive it. When we develop the skills for a cycle of inquiry like this, we become powerful learners.
Unfortunately, this is not how traditional pedagogy shapes learners. Too often, success is defined as finding a definitive answer for the question asked by the teacher or test. Once the assessment is finished and unit ended, the content is “mastered,” and the learning is done. Traditional pedagogy makes learning performative, a process that starts and stops with the teacher.
Pedagogy that doesn’t create cycles of inquiry is problematic. As I’ve written elsewhere in this series, our world is too dynamic to ever have definitive answers on topics that matter. Education must equip learners for a lifetime of critical engagement with the world and ourselves. To understand race is not simply to understand one person’s lived experience, but to explore an unending diversity of experiences and how they evolve within each person. This requires skilled inquiry to develop as much understanding as we can to inform the questions we ask ourselves and others. There is no end to this process, only evolving and improving understanding.
A humble and ongoing cycle of inquiry teaches students to leverage their core human capacities of love and intellect. We change throughout our lives, and so does society. We gain new perspectives as we have new experiences and enter new stages of life. A productive cycle of inquiry aims to constantly inform our values and our actions with our ongoing learning in the world.
Questions as Tools for Transformation
For those schooled in traditional pedagogy, adopting a cycle of inquiry requires more than just a cognitive change. It requires an identity shift. Our sense of self is shaped by how we see ourselves as learners. Do we see ourselves as smart and capable or dull and unlikely to learn new things? This component of our sense of self significantly impacts how we engage with the world. It influences the conversations we join and whether we take on new challenges. It shapes how we engage with teams and hierarchies. It determines whether we confront tensions or see ourselves as victims of the processes that happen around us.
When students transition from traditional pedagogy to a cycle of inquiry, they are often startled to discover there are no definitive answers to the questions that matter. At Thinking Beyond Borders, the educational institution I founded and led for thirteen years, our eighteen year old students were generally high achievers. Out of frustration with our unfamiliar pedagogy, students asked “When are you going to give me the answers?” It was truly disorienting and disheartening to the students to be surrounded by questions that mattered without any definitive answers. They expressed a sense of failure for not having definitive answers to questions like “What is poverty?” and “What is development?” They wanted to find answers and achieve as they had been trained to do. These emotions were heightened by the fact that they wanted to contribute to equity, justice, and sustainability. They wanted definitive answers so they would have a clear path to living their values.
Not long after this frustration set in, students had a transformative moment. Paulo Freire referred to this moment as “dying a social death” in his seminal work Pedagogy of the Oppressed. He described it as a process of interrogating our interconnected assumptions to the point where we no longer unquestioningly believed anything. This net of assumptions breaks, and we fall through. This is a “death” because it leaves one grieving for the unquestioned self — the death of the person they once believed they were.
As dark as this description sounds, there is beauty in it. There is a rebirth on the other side of social death. We are reborn “living in the question.” We no longer find comfort in definitive answers because they are inherently flawed. We find greater comfort in good questions and exploring them with love and intellect so that we improve our understanding and ask better questions. We revel in connecting with those who ask questions with us, share honestly of themselves, and evolve along with us. This process of death and rebirth define truly transformative learning. It doesn’t just change what we know. It changes how we come to know.
Prof. Muldavin’s question “What is development?” and his pedagogy started a transformation in me. As a high achiever, I knew how to win at the game of school. While I was driven by a sense of purpose rooted in previous non-traditional learning experiences, I didn’t own my learning. Listening to a lecture hall of 200 students begin to unpack their assumptions through expert facilitation, I felt a rush. This was the learning I’d been looking for — people engaged in a cycle of inquiry about why humans act as we do. We didn’t just recite theorems and cite authors. Prof. Muldavin applauded real world examples and courageous sharing of personal beliefs, too. I began to develop the skills to support an ongoing cycle of inquiry and the confidence to own it. A transformation was under way.
Embracing a Cycle of Inquiry in Standards-Based Education
In an ideal world, education systems would value a cycle of inquiry over claiming definitive answers. While this may seem in conflict with standards-based education, it doesn’t have to be. Students can explore concepts, study with academic rigor, and arrive on the other side with questions they own that drive their learning forward.
Our pedagogy and lesson plans can reflect this principle:
- Start lessons with a question crafted to illuminate tensions related to the subject and the students’ assumptions — both an outward and inward reflection.
- Facilitate discussion, bring in academic texts, and mine students’ experience for insights and perspectives.
- End lessons by challenging students to identify the questions that will carry their learning forward.
Approaches like these reflect the learning cycle. They build skills and behaviors that support inquiry beyond the classroom. They help students tap their passions and connections to the subject, setting the stage for them to own their learning.
Assessments that measure “content mastery” are fundamentally misaligned with a cycle of inquiry. They put a finality on learning that is centered in the teacher and institution rather than the student. Alternatively, assessments can measure the student’s cycle of inquiry. They can serve as checkpoints that ensure the student is prepared for the learning they will own moving forward.
For example, an assessment can ask a student for the five most important questions with which they are leaving the course. The student explains why each is relevant to them and the world, referencing research, perspectives of others, and assumptions they hold. The teacher can assess student engagement with the course and support them in revising their questions. Students leave the course with a personalized plan for their continued learning.
Curiosity’s greatest expression and most effective tool is the question. When we develop learners who strive for a question for every answer, we set the stage for transformative learning and growth.
This post is part of a series supporting educators in reflecting on their pedagogy and practice. Read the intro to this series If We Don’t Work on Pedagogy, Nothing Else Matters or explore the most recent posts below.
The Revolutionary Pedagogy of Truths ← P R E V I O U S
N E X T → Teaching Is a Political Act
