University of Pennsylvania professor Angela Duckworth says she’s made a point of asking her undergraduate students “authentic questions” — i.e., those that have “no single simple answer.”
“Skipping authentic questions may feel more efficient, and perhaps this is why, in a typical classroom, most of the questions teachers ask are not authentic ones,” writes Duckworth in a column for Education Week. “But the truism holds: You haven’t taught until they’ve learned.
She added, “What matters isn’t the volume of information I dispense but rather the quality of the insights in the hungry, active and independent minds of my students.”
To read Duckworth’s full column, click here.
