Think back to a time where you were in a class and a teacher asked a question. How many people raised their hand or jumped up and down to respond? In my experience, not many individuals are willing to share out in front of peers because they are afraid they will be judged or their response could be deemed wrong. In my classroom, I have a group of five students that can constantly be counted on to participate. I feel like I am pulling teeth trying to engage the remaining 19 students. Thus came the Wicked Question
“How can I encourage students to take risks and not worry about being wrong but learn along the way?”
After deciding to delve deeper to answer the question, I created a survey to learn from students how I could engage them in their learning to take risks. Creating a survey was an extremely difficult task. I found wording questions in a way 4th and 5th graders would understand while gaining insight to be highly challenging. While designing the survey, I decided to keep the survey and questions short. I knew if I wrote a plethora or lengthy questions, the students would not read them or they would lose interest. I also decided to include short answer questions because sometimes students are more forthcoming when their responses are anonymous which could give beneficial information. Even after multiple revisions, I do not know if the survey will provide all of the answers but hopefully, I will be able to use the information to adjust instructions to answer my Wicked Question.
Image Credit:
Clark, K. (2021). Wicked Question [Illustration]. In Wicked Question.
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