Educating for Good Questioning: a Tool for Intellectual Virtues Education

Abstract

Questioning is a familiar, everyday practice which we use, often unreflectively, in order to gather information, communicate with each other, and advance our inquiries. Yet, not all questions are equally effective and not all questioners are equally adept. Being a good questioner requires a degree of proficiency and judgment, both in determining what to ask and in deciding who, where, when, and how to ask. Good questioning is an intellectual skill. Given its ubiquity and significance, it is an intellectual skill that, I believe, we should educate for. In this paper, I present a central line of argument in support of educating for good questioning, namely, that it plays an important role in the formation of an individual's intellectual character and can thereby serve as a valuable pedagogical tool for intellectual character education. I argue that good questioning plays two important roles in the cultivation of intellectual character: good questioning (1) stimulates intellectually virtuous inquiry and (2) contributes to the development of several of the individual intellectual virtues. Insofar as the cultivation of intellectually virtuous character is a desirable educational objective, we should educate for good questioning.Questioning is a familiar, everyday practice. We ask questions from an early age in order to gather and exchange information, to communicate our needs and desires, to engage others in conversation, and to advance both our public and private inquiries. Questioning, in short, is an essential component of our collective, social, and intellectual endeavours. Yet, not all questions are equally effective and not all questioners are equally adept at achieving these ends. Being a good questioner requires a degree of proficiency and judgement, both in determining what to ask and in deciding who, where, when, and how to ask. Good questioning is an intellectual skill. Given its ubiquity and personal and societal significance, it is an intellectual skill that, I believe, we should educate for. In this paper, I present a central line of argument in support of educating for good questioning, namely, that it plays an important role in the formation of an individual's intellectual character. Educating for the

The social fabric of understanding: equilibrium, authority, and epistemic empathy

“…We are left, then, with a crucial question: what other factors beyond or instead of possessing a substantial body of true disciplinary beliefs can account for an agent's ability to (systematically and reliably 26 ) guide less experienced inquirers in their attempts to achieve reflective equilibrium or understanding? 23 Watson, J.C (2018) and Watson, L (2018) uses this term, though in a slightly different sense than we do. 24 For a detailed comparison of Goldman's earlier approach with his later, "novice-oriented" account of what it takes to be an expert, see Croce (2019).…”

“…Her account also excludes our teacher as an expert. Illuminating criticisms of both Goldman's and Fricker's veritistic approaches have been made by Watson, J.C (2018) and Watson, L (2018), who develops an alternative definition. Discussing Watson's approach is beyond the scope of this paper.…”

Usage of Effective Questioning to Enhance Students ‘level of participation in a Grade XI Chemistry Classroom of a Government Degree College in Rural District of Jacobabad

“…The ability to ask questions is central to information seeking, learning how to learn, bridging unknown to known, encouraging enquiring minds and it is essential to the systematic investigation of information. Moreover, questioning is a skill that enables one to discover the hidden treasure of knowledge (Watson, 2018). Therefore, every aspect of lecture-format teaching can cater to questioning to understand the complexity of teaching and learning chemistry.…”

“…A large body of literature is on the nature of classroom questioning which has been focused in terms of teachers' questioning and do they use questions in teaching both in developed and developing countries especially in science and language (Watson, 2018;Wangru, 2016). Very little literature from Pakistan is found on teachers' questioning where schooling is focused on the acquisition of factual knowledge (Dean, 2005).…”

“…Because of this tradition, chemistry is considered a boring subject, and students are compelled to rote memorization and they cannot enjoy the learning experiences, which further demotivate the students to think and raise issues. This ultimately hinders the development of their thinking skills (Watson, 2018;Siddiqui, 2016) and retards their classroom participation. Teachers themselves are coming from the home environments where questioning is not encouraged, and children are shunned by saying that it is rude to ask adults.…”