Judge a man by the questions he asks!

Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers. (Voltaire)

All our lives, we have been told that our smartness is measured by the answers that we have. And here comes Voltaire who says the opposite! My initial reaction is, ‘What does this mean?’ However, since it is Voltaire that says it, I think it must have some meaning and I dig deeper!

As a listener, I may learn more by the questions I ask instead of by the quiet judgments I make. As a reader I may gain more by my questioning the text instead of believing what I read blindly. As a human being, I may contribute more to society by questioning the traditions than blindly following them.

“The questions do mean a lot in life, not just for the sake of saying it, but for the sake that they define where your life is headed and how you are going to shape your life”, (Inspire99, 2019, para. 5). As I read this blog piece, I felt pieces dropping in my mind and a change in the way I approached questions. Questions as a way to change your perspective to life is a new way for me. For example, when students ask, ‘Why am I bad at maths?’, I could change the question to, ‘what am I best at and how can I be even better?’ Or ‘How important is maths in my life, and am I giving it enough importance or too less or too more?’

I recall during practice teaching, when I to a class of grade 9. I taught Geometry and asked a lot of questions to begin and carry a lesson. End of the class, I asked the students how they found my teaching. 8 out of 30 students said that they liked it. A student who did not like it said, “You asked more questions than gave answers”. A student who liked is said, “That is the right way to teach”.

Post my lesson I asked my supervisor if I was okay. He said, “You were great!” If it wasn’t for him, I would have quit my teaching course for I did not know the value of my strategies. Over the years, I decided to be open to every question that the students may ask me. If I did not know the answer, I asked them for 2 days to get it for them. Sometimes I would go far and wide in search for answers. And I always got them.

Maths lends itself to strictly single answer questions. However, one can ask open ended questions such as, ‘How would you add decimals? Explain in your own words’. Such questions allow multiple answers. ““Always ask if there is another perspective, another point of view, another explanation, another way to solve a problem, to stimulate critical thinking.” (Asia Society/OECD, 2018, pp.23, para. 6).

“To provide opportunities for students to deepen their understanding of mathematics, teachers need to encourage communities of mathematical discourse in their classrooms”, (Evans, Montemurro, Gambhir & Broad (Eds.)). Hence I would organize group discussion around problem solving in maths. These problems would be a mix of hard and easy and chosen in a way that entails a discussion. I would also have groups created from multiple cultures and maths levels.

I would have structured debates around issues related to maths. For example:

· ‘How useful is maths?’

· ‘Is maths fearful?’

· ‘Is there a math gene?’

· ‘If most of the world has moved to metric system, why do think some countries still prefer the imperial system for measurements?’

· ‘How is maths a universal language?’

· ‘As per Indian culture, girls do not need maths as they would eventually run a house – agree or disagree? Give justifications.’

‘Why are we learning this?’ is a question I have heard over and over again in my years of teaching maths. I’d encourage it more and answer it for the students. I would even ask them, in case they do not ask me! I would ask questions such as (a) who needs this topic? Or (b) who would suffer if this topic was not there? Or (c) what is the use of knowing this?

“Project-based learning is an important pedagogical tool for developing global competence”, (Asia Society/OECD, 2018). I would organize group projects around questions such as, ‘How do I find the height of this building without climbing it?’ I would give the students space to explore the problem and strategize the solution themselves. The product would be turned in the way they wish to, bringing in differentiation.

I would ask them to investigate any topic with a group using online tools. This could be around ‘what is pi?’ or ‘what is scientific notation?’ They create their own questions and then research for the answers. Their submission would be original and in the way they prefer.

None of this is possible unless there is a learning environment that allows students to feel safe to ask any question. “To foster global competence, teachers need to create classroom cultures in which students feel safe to express their opinions, safe to speculate, and safe to disagree with their fellow students or even their teacher, without being discourteous”, (Asia Society/OECD, 2018). I would work to develop an unconditional acceptance in myself towards all cultures present in the class, in order to cultivate the atmosphere of acceptance. I want “…students to feel that they can “communicate their ideas directly to others, without hesitation, and without hurting anyone”, (Asia Society/OECD).

With these strategies in place, “The educator’s role becomes one of facilitator, questioning and prompting students as they participate in mathematical conversations”, (Evans, Montemurro, Gambhir & Broad (Eds.).

I started by a weak meaning of the quote and ended, through the research, with a deeper meaning that is for a me tool to improve my perspective to the world. I also realize that with clever adjustments, global issue scan be integrated with maths in the classroom easily. Perhaps that would give maths a wide enough perspective to be appealing to all students.