▶ Your Answer :
While some may claim that students can
learn most effectively by accepting what they are taught, I think that putting
into question the most powerful way for learning as the speaker argues; since
questioning in teaching helps students raise the ability of critical thinking;
and knowledge in human history has advanced through doubt, conflict, and
reconstruction.
Admittedly, it is very effective way to
assimilate what they are taught as it is. In fact, it is fundamental and
natural approach to learn since very young. When trying a new game, for
instance, kids come to grasp the rules by watching, following, and repeating
what their friends, parents, or teachers do in front of them. In addition to
games, when we learn a new technique in a school setting, the first we do is
imitating the instructor’s direction or problem-solving skills such
understanding and memorizing a multiplication table. Also, given that an
instructor is experienced and discerns principles and know-how of
problem-solving, you would not have to struggle by yourself to find a method
from the beginning or correct errors and so on.
However, the more complicated a problem
becomes, the less satisfactory it would be to follow passively the way you
observe and listen to, since exploring a complex idea or searching for truth of
things is not as simple as memorizing a multiplication table. Truly, probing
thought at a deep level requires ongoing questions about a subject or an issue. By doing so, students can distinguish what they know and what they
don’t know, construct their own way, and improve their ability of critical
thinking overall.
Finally, it is axiomatic that there is no
rule without exception and that there is no perfect knowledge existent. By
putting into question what has already existed, knowledge in human history has
advanced. For example, Impressionism in art history could emerge by questioning
the assumptions and the institutions which had long accustomed the public. Impressionists
preferred vivid colors with free brush-strokes and tried to capture ordinary
life scene such as landscape or a child moving at a garden. It was contrary to
the academic tradition it the era that highly valued a painting with religious
or historical contents with carefully examined details. Impressionists
questioned such traditional way could not capture the reality – the life as it
was, whereby they were able to create new era in art history. Without doubting
the traditional way to perceive and express objects, there would be no invention
or creation available. In the process of development, doubting, conflicting,
and subversion or reconstruction is what we can witness in the field of science
as humanities as well as the evolution of art history. Thus, students should
practice the way to question what has already existed.
To conclude, the purpose of study is not
only to acquire techniques but also to raise critical thinking and pursue
knowledge at a deep level; and questioning is a fundamental way to reach it.
While following and imitating what students are taught must be time-saving
method to learn basic rules of problem-solving, as an idea gets more complex,
critical thinking by questions could be much more powerful to understand
complex ideas or solve complicated matters. Also, as the advance of knowledge
throughout human history has proved, students should practice questioning and
examining what has established. |