The power of ummmm... | Kath Murdoch | TEDxWestVancouverED

Summary

This script explores the profound impact of children's curiosity on learning and education. It highlights the importance of nurturing wonder and inquiry in classrooms, contrasting the reflective silence of a car ride with the bustling environment of a traditional classroom. The speaker, an educator, shares anecdotes and children's questions that provoke deep thinking about identity, existence, and the world. The narrative calls for a reimagining of educational spaces that foster curiosity and the exploration of big ideas, rather than merely imparting knowledge.

Takeaways

• 🧑‍🏫 The speaker is an educator fascinated by using children's questions as a gateway to deep learning.
• 🚗 The car ride is described as a 'Wonder bubble' where children often ask deep and reflective questions.
• 🤔 The speaker cherishes the 'ums' that signal a moment of pause and reflection, allowing for big ideas to emerge.
• 📝 The importance of capturing children's questions, like the ones collected on post-it notes, is highlighted.
• 🌐 UNESCO's quote is mentioned to emphasize that it's the questions, not the answers, that enlighten.
• 📚 The classroom environment is contrasted with the reflective atmosphere of the car, often being busy and not conducive to wonder.
• 🌟 The idea of classrooms as places where wonder thrives is proposed, where children feel heard and encouraged to ask questions.
• 🌱 The speaker collects children's questions globally, noting they reflect universal big questions about identity, existence, and connection.
• 📖 John Steinbeck's tribute to his teacher is cited, painting a classroom as a place of wonder and exploration.
• 🔍 Inquiry-based teaching is praised for nurturing curiosity and a passion for learning in children.
• 🦗 A specific example of an inquiry-based lesson with a praying mantis is shared to illustrate the process of learning through questions and exploration.

Q & A

What is the significance of children's questions according to the speaker?

The speaker believes that children's questions are a gateway to deep learning and a moment of pause in our busy lives, allowing for reflection and the introduction of big ideas.

Why did the speaker keep Post-it notes in the car?

The speaker kept Post-it notes in the car to jot down her children's insightful questions, which she found valuable and worth remembering.

What does the speaker suggest about the nature of classrooms?

The speaker suggests that classrooms can often be alienating or disconnecting places for children, favoring quick and decisive answers over the nurturing of curiosity and wonder.

How does the speaker describe the atmosphere of the car as a 'Wonder bubble'?

The 'Wonder bubble' refers to the reflective and contemplative atmosphere in the car during long journeys, which often leads to children asking profound and insightful questions.

What does the speaker mean by 'the antithesis of the Wonder bubble' when referring to classrooms?

The speaker means that classrooms are often the opposite of the reflective and open environment of the car, being busy, noisy, and sometimes too focused on immediate answers rather than fostering curiosity.

What is the role of an inquiry teacher according to the script?

An inquiry teacher is one who takes children's questions seriously, celebrates them, and uses them as a starting point for exploration and learning, nurturing their curiosity and passion for discovery.

What is the significance of the praying mantis incident in the classroom?

The praying mantis incident is significant as it demonstrates how an inquiry teacher can turn an unexpected event into an opportunity for learning and exploration, even when the subject of inquiry dies.

What does the speaker suggest about the importance of questions in education?

The speaker suggests that questions are vital in education as they can lead to the exploration of big ideas and concepts, and instill a lifelong passion for learning in children.

How does the speaker view the role of a teacher in fostering curiosity?

The speaker views the teacher's role as crucial in fostering curiosity by actively listening to children's questions, ensuring they are comfortable with uncertainty, and guiding them through the process of inquiry.

What is the potential danger the speaker sees in the current educational system?

The speaker fears that if not careful, the educational system might stifle curiosity, following the same path as creativity has been accused of being 'killed' in schools.

What does the speaker mean by 'rethinking education'?

Rethinking education, according to the speaker, involves going back to the core business of engaging children in inquiry, making classrooms places where their questions are heard and their curiosity is nurtured.

Outlines

00:00

🚗 The Magic of Curiosity in Motion

The speaker, an educator, reflects on the profound moments of silence and curiosity that arise during car rides with children. These moments often lead to children asking deep, reflective questions that signal a pause in the busyness of life, allowing for the exploration of big ideas. The speaker cherishes these 'ums' as they mark a transition between activities and a gateway to learning. The car, once a 'Wonder bubble,' has evolved into a space for confessions as the children have grown into teenagers, yet it retains its reflective atmosphere. The speaker also discusses the importance of questions in the learning process, quoting UNESCO to emphasize that it's the questions, not the answers, that enlighten.

05:00

🏫 The Classroom as a Haven for Wonder

The speaker contrasts the reflective 'Wonder bubble' of a car ride with the often busy and disconnected nature of classrooms. Despite being places of learning, classrooms can sometimes stifle curiosity and wonder. The speaker ponders what it would be like if classrooms were environments where children's questions were not only heard but celebrated, and where the unknown was more exciting than the known. They suggest that classrooms should be habitats where wonder thrives, and children feel empowered to ask questions without fear of judgment. The speaker also shares examples of children's questions, which reflect universal human inquiries about identity, existence, and connection.

10:02

🔥 The Glow of Wonder in Education

Drawing on the words of John Steinbeck, who described a classroom as a place where children's ideas shone like fireflies, the speaker advocates for classrooms that invite and nurture wonder. They argue that education should not just be about imparting knowledge but about inspiring a lifelong passion for learning. The speaker is reassured by the growing number of teachers who are committed to inquiry-based learning, using children's questions as a starting point for exploration and discovery. They share the story of a teacher named Annette, who turned the unexpected arrival of a praying mantis in her classroom into an opportunity for inquiry and learning about the life cycle, even after the mantis's death.

15:05

🌏 Fostering a Universe of Curiosity

The speaker concludes by emphasizing the importance of fostering curiosity in children. They share a series of questions from children about the universe, the origins of life, and human behavior, illustrating the innate desire to understand the world. The speaker believes that it is the role of educators to nurture this curiosity, to listen to children's questions, and to ensure they are comfortable with uncertainty. The summary ends with a reflection on the beauty of human wonder and an invitation for the audience to consider their own questions, highlighting the universal nature of curiosity and inquiry.

Keywords

💡Educator

An educator is a professional who engages in the practice of facilitating learning. In the context of the video, the speaker is an educator who is passionate about using children's questions as a gateway to deep learning. The role of the educator is central to the theme of nurturing curiosity and fostering an environment where questions are valued and explored.

💡Deep Learning

Deep learning refers to a subfield of machine learning in artificial intelligence, but in the video, it metaphorically represents profound or meaningful learning experiences. The speaker uses children's questions to delve into complex topics and ideas, illustrating how these questions can lead to deep learning opportunities.

💡Reflection

Reflection is the process of thinking deeply about one's experiences, ideas, or beliefs. The video emphasizes the importance of reflection in learning, particularly during moments of silence in a car ride, which allows for contemplation. The speaker cherishes these reflective moments as they provide space for big ideas to emerge.

💡Curiosity

Curiosity is the desire to learn or know more about something or someone. The video highlights curiosity as a driving force behind learning and questions. It is portrayed as something that should be nurtured in children, as it leads to exploration and discovery, as seen in the classroom examples provided.

💡Wonder

Wonder is a feeling of amazement and admiration, often caused by something beautiful or grand. In the video, wonder is associated with the awe-inspiring moments of learning and the questions that children ask. The speaker describes the car ride as a 'Wonder bubble' and classrooms as places where wonder should thrive.

💡Inquiry

Inquiry is the act of seeking information or knowledge through questioning. The video promotes inquiry-based learning, where teachers and students engage with questions to explore concepts and ideas. Inquiry is exemplified by the teacher, Annette, who uses a praying mantis to provoke questions and exploration.

💡Classroom

A classroom is a room in which teaching activities take place. The video contrasts the reflective, wonder-filled car environment with the often busy and noisy classroom. It calls for classrooms to become more conducive to nurturing curiosity and wonder, rather than stifling them.

💡Questions

Questions are expressions of inquiry or doubt, typically seeking information or clarification. The video script is filled with examples of children's questions, which are used to illustrate the importance of valuing and exploring these inquiries as a means of learning and understanding the world.

💡Concepts

Concepts are abstract ideas or general notions. The speaker discusses how children's questions can lead to the exploration of big concepts, such as the nature of existence or the functioning of the world. These concepts are central to the learning process described in the video.

💡Rituals

Rituals are a series of actions or types of behavior performed regularly and according to a tradition. The video mentions rituals in the context of a classroom exploring the concept of a funeral for a praying mantis, showing how rituals can be a part of learning and understanding cultural practices.

💡Uncertainty

Uncertainty refers to the state of being unsure or the condition of being unknown. The video encourages embracing uncertainty as a part of the learning process, where not knowing is an opportunity for exploration and discovery, rather than a deficiency.

Highlights

Using children's questions as a gateway to deep learning

The significance of 'ums' as a moment of pause in busy lives

Car rides as a fertile environment for children's questions and reflections

The importance of capturing children's questions with post-it notes

UNESCO's quote on the enlightening power of questions over answers

The 'Wonder bubble' of the car transforming into a 'confessional' with teenage children

Journeys as 'The Midwives of thought' according to Elena Baton

The contrast between the reflective car environment and the classroom setting

Classrooms as potentially alienating places for children's curiosity and wonder

The idea of classrooms as habitats where wonder thrives

The impact of quick, decisive environments on nurturing curiosity

Children's questions reflecting universal big questions about identity and existence

John Steinbeck's tribute poem to his teacher and the image of captured fireflies

The need to rethink education to focus on inquiry and engagement

Ken Robinson's critique of schools killing creativity and the risk to curiosity

Inquiry teachers who celebrate children's questions and nurture their curiosity

Annette's classroom example of using a praying mantis to provoke inquiry

The concept of life cycles and the children's creation of a funeral ritual for a praying mantis

The importance of nurturing children's curiosity and comfort with uncertainty

Children's profound and diverse wonderings about the universe, life, and human behavior

Transcripts

I'm here because I am an educator and I

am fascinated by the way in which we can

use children's questions as a gateway to

deep learning so I get to spend and now

you're really wondering what do I spend

a lot of time in one of

these when my kids were little I would

notice the way that a car ride would put

them in this strange kind of a trance uh

if they weren't crying or asleep or

storing food away in the crevices of the

back seat for the long cold winter ahead

there would be this delicious kind of

Silence this

weighty silence the Silence of the

imminent and sure enough it would come

mommy um um I was just

wondering now whether it was the swish

of the windscreen wipers or the passing

landscape or the hum of the engine or

the fact that we couldn't actually look

each other in the eye there was

something about a car ride that would

inevitably give rise to a question as

they gazed

out I came to really cherish those ums

they signaled a moment of pause in our

busy lives a place marker between one

activity and the

next sometimes a car ride was the chance

for us to pick up loose threads of

events that had happened weeks

beforehand there were a time for

reflection for pausing to let Big Ideas

come in or sometimes to open our minds

simply to allow the most random of

observations

mom why do dogs have

faces I took to keeping postlet notes in

the car so that I could scribble down

some of my favorite questions at the

traffic lights let me share some with

you so did God want all this stuff here

these houses this

road um lamb and Jack were my friends in

grade 2 how come they just run away when

they see me

now why do people smoke when they know

it can kill them so um does everyone see

the same thing when they look at that I

mean when you see red do you see what I

see when I see

red why can't I marry my

sister

um will you die one

day will I

die UNESCO famously said that it's not

the answer that enlightens it's the

question and I couldn't agree more a

question can be such a thing of beauty

it leaves us open vulnerable and on the

precipice of learning something new but

something that we have invited in

the Wonder bubble that is my car has

kind of transformed into more of a

confessional now that my children are

teenagers but it's never lost that

beautiful atmosphere of

reflection Elena baton describes in fact

Journeys as The Midwives of thought and

for us many of our Journeys have been

just that they've given birth to some of

the best questions to some of our best

thinking and some of our most precious

silences so I'm a

parent but as I said I'm also an

educator and for much of my professional

life I've been fortunate to work with

children and teachers all over the world

so when I'm not in one of

these or one of these you can usually

find me in one of these the classroom

now the classroom in many ways is the

antithesis of that Wonder bubble that

I've described as my car on a long

journey or a treehouse or the front

porch or the bath or anywhere where we

are still enough to be reflective and to

allow those big thoughts and

speculations to occur in our minds

classrooms are busy often noisy or

strangely too quiet

places and whether they are the kind of

sterile environment that I grew up in or

the colorful chalk full of dingle dangle

classrooms that I created when I first

started teaching regardless of the style

they can still be rather alienating or

disconnecting places for

children I think classrooms can be very

poor habitats for

Wonder it can be very

difficult to

find

might maybe could

be um I wonder let's

see tell me more in an environment that

is often dominated by is isn't must

should yes no quick right

wrong classrooms tend to favor the quick

and the

decisive while um hovers somewhat

nervously at the door what if more

classrooms were habitats in which wonder

thrived what if classrooms were places

that children knew their questions would

be heard what if it was more exciting in

a classroom to not know

something than it was to know

something I mean we know that children

don't stop having questions just because

they come to

school but maybe we stop giving

ourselves the opportunity to listen to

them I wonder why Pluto is very tiny and

nobody's ever discovered about it I

wonder why rabbits have eyes on the side

of their head how I

don't make kids um I wonder about who

discovered England how many bones you

can collect in one dinosaur's body

because like if like is I think it's one

of like the first countries ever

discovered so I'd like to find out who

discovered it and what their name was

was it like a Chinese name or an Indian

name or a real English name sometimes I

wonder if Jesus was real or not so

sometimes I wonder about how aboriginals

first got onto Australia yeah where the

weeds come

from when turtles are on their backs why

do they die sometimes they wonder when

when the

engaging um got started

if humans were around when dinosaurs

were around the engaging it's when you

get

married sometimes I

wonder how do people get in um invited

to things don't know if I want to get

married or not

the children that you have just met are

from a local school in Melbourne where I

live that I've been fortunate to work

with for many years and their questions

are

delightful but in many ways they're not

unique as I said I work with children

around the world and I collect questions

from them like some people collect

souvenir spoons or pens from hotel rooms

the interesting thing is that when you

survey the rich territory that is

children's questions what you notice is

that they reflect the big questions that

we all grapple with our whole lives who

am I how did I get

here what makes me me what makes me work

and how am I the same as and different

to you and how can I connect to you and

what about everything else how did it

get here and how does it work

and why do things go

wrong and what can we

do when they do go wrong how can we make

things

better children's questions can lead us

and them to those big Concepts those big

ideas that are really worth making

meaning about the great writer John

Steinbeck wrote a beautiful poem in

tribute to his favorite teacher the

teacher that had the biggest impact on

him as a child and in that poem he

described the classroom as a place where

the children's speculations ranged the

world he says that they came to that

classroom door each day with their ideas

cued in their hands like captured

fireflies isn't that a beautiful image

the image of the

Firefly representing the glow of

Wonder representing the burning passion

the Fire

Within I think more classrooms should be

places like the one that's Steinbeck

experienced all those years ago places

where we invite Wonder in places where

children's questions can lead us to

those big Ideas the ideas the places we

want to take them to anyway

in rethinking education sometimes we

need to consider rethinking as simply

thinking again going back going back to

remind ourselves of our Core

Business surely surely classrooms should

be places where children are engaged in

inquiring into the way their world works

both external and

internal Ken Robinson has accused

schools of being places that kill

creativity and sometimes I worry that if

we're not very very

careful curiosity May well be the next

victim but

then then I'm reassured I'm reassured by

the growing number of classrooms that I

visit around the world where teachers

have committed themselves to working

with children in a spirit of inquiry

these are teachers who take children's

questions and celebrate them teachers

who invite Wonder in they don't just

invite it in they actively nurture it

they provoke it they know how to use

questions in order to take kids on

journeys of Discovery to the concepts

the understandings that the teachers

themselves and sometimes the curriculum

has determined inquiry teachers don't

just teach kids things that will be soon

forgotten they instill within them a

passion and a hunger for

learning Annette is one such teacher she

teaches 5-year-olds in a school just

down the road from my house I can almost

see her classroom if I stand on my tippy

toes and look out the front

door not long ago when Annette and her

children walked into the classroom

towards the end of the day they found in

the room on the mat waiting in for them

a most unexpected visitor now for some

teachers the excitement that then ensued

would have been an annoying distraction

at the end of the day they had things to

do and get on with but for Anette an

inquiry teacher the praying mantis was a

welcome

provocation she's an inquiry teacher so

what does she ask she

asks what are you

wondering and the questions fly thick

and fast what is it how did it get here

why is it green is it a spider no it's

it's a praying mantis does it pray what

does it eat can we keep it why does it

have long

legs so many

questions and it promised the children

that tomorrow

morning when they came into school they

would be researchers she says let's see

what we can find out we ' got so many

questions you can even start finding out

tonight your researchers you know what

to do when you don't

know the next morning the children

arrived at school excited ready to

explore but unfortunately the praying

mantis that I promise you had been given

everything a praying mantis could

possibly need to survive the

night had succumbed and was no longer

with

us the praying mantis

had

died but the inquiry had not for Annette

it was just a new

pathway the children had more

questions so what should we

do why did it

die should we have a funeral what's a

funeral what happens in

funerals Annette had intended to explore

the concept of life cycle CES with her

children that year this was the perfect

opportunity one of the questions was so

is he in the circle of life now like The

Lion

King she hadn't quite intended to

explore the rituals associated with

funerals but you know what she did there

were some children in that class that

had been to funerals the others were

fascinated and together they developed a

ritual for that praying mantis I can

promise you two things

that that insect had the best sendoff of

any invertebrate ever to have roam the

Earth and also that those children would

never forget that

moment Anette like the other inquiry

teachers I work with knows that her job

is not to fill the children's heads with

soon forgotten things but rather to

instill in them a hunger

a

passion to nurture that Curiosity they

were born with to listen to their

questions to ensure that they are

comfortable with

uncertainty um um um um um um um I think

I

forgot well I've always wondered how the

universe has being

created I wonder how the world starts

I've always wondered

um like how was the world made and what

made it or who made it and um like how

did the features like trees and stuff

how were they made I believe Earth was

actually created when um lots and lots

of Boulders got together and when they

did it caused friction and that's why

Earth was so hot and it was a volcanic

Planet until lots of chemicals started

coming in

maybe the people jumped from the room to

the um and I've also wondered things

like um how were animals made and how

they come alive and I also wonder why

people kill animals and plants for no

reason if we need them to help us live

and survive I've always been wondering

how does our brain work inside of us and

like what parts are in it and why do

people be

actress how do they like become one I

think there's lots of big parts and

small parts in it and maybe mediumsized

Parts as well why the world doesn't use

one language so we can all communicate

together we're humans I've always

wondered a lot of things about

us I I wonder I wonder how um I'm Wonder

I've been

wondering we're humans I've always

wondered a lot about us isn't that

beautiful

so what are you wondering