The power of ummmm... | Kath Murdoch | TEDxWestVancouverED
Summary
TLDRThis 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
- ๐งโ๐ซ The speaker is an educator fascinated by using children's questions as a gateway to deep learning.
- ๐ The car ride is described as a 'Wonder bubble' where children often ask deep and reflective questions.
- ๐ค The speaker cherishes the 'ums' that signal a moment of pause and reflection, allowing for big ideas to emerge.
- ๐ The importance of capturing children's questions, like the ones collected on post-it notes, is highlighted.
- ๐ UNESCO's quote is mentioned to emphasize that it's the questions, not the answers, that enlighten.
- ๐ The classroom environment is contrasted with the reflective atmosphere of the car, often being busy and not conducive to wonder.
- ๐ The idea of classrooms as places where wonder thrives is proposed, where children feel heard and encouraged to ask questions.
- ๐ฑ The speaker collects children's questions globally, noting they reflect universal big questions about identity, existence, and connection.
- ๐ John Steinbeck's tribute to his teacher is cited, painting a classroom as a place of wonder and exploration.
- ๐ Inquiry-based teaching is praised for nurturing curiosity and a passion for learning in children.
- ๐ฆ 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
๐ 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.
๐ซ 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.
๐ฅ 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.
๐ 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.
Mindmap
Keywords
๐กEducator
๐กDeep Learning
๐กReflection
๐กCuriosity
๐กWonder
๐กInquiry
๐กClassroom
๐กQuestions
๐กConcepts
๐กRituals
๐กUncertainty
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
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