Creative Education – Evaluation of Students’ Questions as Method of Scoring

As we try to reach forth for a future where our growing generations are not only critical towards ideas but are creative and innovative, we need to address our archaic method of education.

Ultimately, a learned student will need to be investigative and inquisitive, with inquisitiveness as our primary instinct equipped with a sharpened investigative nature.

Oh, but how do we get that?

Let’s review our present teaching style. Everyone will agree that we are taught to memorize and then when tested, just regurgitate them (a term that we use affectionately use often) whenever questions asked have the keywords associated with what we remember. This method works well, yes, and there are definitely “critical thinking” components that are fitted in.. which of course is suppose to be a guide for curiosity to juice in, BUT it is not effective in really getting students the drive to learn how to think.

To tackle the issue, each student need to have the ability to ask questions – and there are such things as stupid questions.. unless stupid questions builds up to asking smarter questions, it remains stupid.

Great! So we know the obvious; to get students thinking, we need to get them asking. How do we evaluate that?

We will run the current formal lecture but evaluation will dramatically change.

If you’re running a formal education, here’s a proposal:

Students will have 3 main folders:
- Questions Folder: to compile all the questions a student asks, whether in class or outside of class while they do their homework / research / extra reading
- Answers Folder: this folder will contain pages from the Question Folder that has matching answers to it
- Notes Folder: Notes taken in class as well as external references and appendices that are collected throughout an academic course

Evaluation is quite simple. The bulk of the score weights are in the HOW students asks questions (therefore most evaluations are done on the Questions Folder – obviously).

The scores are based on the depth of the students’ questions eg. if student asks a definition question like “What is Photosynthesis”, they will get a medium score.. if students asks a more indepth question eg. “How does chlorophyll transform sunlight into food” they will get a higher score. Here’s then a taxonomy of question evaluation:

Ask examples: Lowest score given
Ask definitions: Medium score given
Ask explanations: High score given
Ask exploratory questions: Highest score given.

Total Weight Percentage: 70%

Exploratory Questions are questions that are related to the subject matter being taught but beyond the scope of syllabus.

The Answers Folder will fill in the rest of the 30%.

It is also important to encourage collaborative efforts, so if students wrote answers that they gained through teamwork effort (via simply asking, group study, asking other teachers, asking seniors), they should gain more points (from the 30%).

With that, I end a proposal about a rough guide to Creative Education.

Gap

Philip looked around him and saw that the maize encircling around him were just a hundred meters in circumference.

Looking at Uncle Ben, tall and bulk he suggested, “Why not we pitch camps here? Looks like there this clearing is fairly grounded and not much work needs to be done”

“Kid, I guess you didn’t get it what I was bringing you here for. It’s not a camping trip, son. We’re here to work”

Without much doubt Philip swung down the heavy haversack of tents and supplies to the ground and picked up a single sickle. “So, this is the gap that you were saying? This small clearing?”

*Chuckles* “Nope” Uncle Ben held up high, his own sickle towards the sunlight, that beams reflect of its blade. Then he pointed at the crop and said, “This clearing is not the gap, but the reason for this sickle is to make the gap smaller”

“The fields are ripe for harvest, but the workers are few”

Sins of the father – another analogy

Here’s another way to look at sins of the father.

Imagine your dad ordering food for you. The food took a long time to come. Your dad got impatient and rushed the chef, and the chef got agitated – and therefore spits into the dish. Food arrives and you get the food that was spat on.

Freewill – a Mechanism (simplified version)

* Be reminded that this is a thought experiment of how freewill works and how God plays a role in it. Not a certain doctrine or dogma.

Imagine yourself as a free moving, self-initiated pool ball on a pool table. Everyone and everything that you interact with are also pool balls that have the same abilities as you do… well, except for the objects around that is – for it is not the objects itself (your clothes, your job, your house, etc.) but rather the opportunity of interacting with it.

So, the foundational idea is set. You are a free moving pool ball and you interact with another ball by hitting it, the movements that happen after the impact is the consequence of your’s and others’ freewill movements.

The pool table (imagine a huge one) represent the world that we live in.

Notice that I have not yet included the cue stick. The person holding the cue stick (and there is only one) is God as He is the intervening factor to push opportunities (other balls) towards you or away from, clumping the balls closer to your side that you may definitely hit one, or displacing them far away so that you will not have much chance hitting it.

That is my way of interpreting “God has plans for you” and “God knows the future” and “God is in control” because being the cue-ist, He can see everything that is going to happen, and manipulate the game as He wants.

Therefore, FREEWILL is the power to move on your own accord but within a world that is limited within God’s sight.

A Worldwide Affect

If there is one emotion that you want everyone in the world to feel including yourself, what would it be and why?

A method of thinking

In method of thinking, one is to think in the same manner as scientists run their experiments.

Apparatus: Your Mind, Your Memory, Steady Attention and Some Concentration

Procedure:

1.  Scientist usually call this step the “Problem”. Basically it is something that is bothering you or something you find worth questioning.
2. Make an assumption about it or rather, come up with an answer for it. We usually cal this part the “Hypothesis” 
3. Assume that your hypothesis is wrong. That is to deny the answer you came up with just now. This component is usually called the “Null Hypothesis”
4. Explore your question by searching for answers… well, one simple way is to ask other people who you think knows. From gathering all their opinion, you can now roughly guess if their responses are about the same as yours. If it is the same, then your answer in (2) is correct (or at least follows the majority of who you asked). If it is not the same, check and see if your answer in (2) makes sense or not, if it does, then you need to investigate more and try things for yourself. 

The key ingredient to this method of thinking is really (3) whereby you assume that your (2) is wrong.. after all, before you learn something, you need to admit that you do not know. It is from this attitude that you may learn something beyond your own thinking. As Socrates said (I wonder if this applies here) “wisest is he who knows that he does not know”

How to get your kids excited about studying

A little suggestion, but this should best be instilled when the child is still very young.. most suitable when they just begin talking.

Simple really, just ask your kids this after they attend any form of learning centers or even watching a cartoon, movie or whatever:

” What did you learn ? “

On the surface, it helps your kids to express themselves, which effectively increases their likelihood of being able to communicate and socialize with their peers in the future as well as building their confidence. 

On a slightly deeper level, it allows you and your children to find out how inquisitive your kids are. By reporting what they’ve learned for the day, they reiterate what they found most interesting or most emphasized.. even bringing to remembrance what was not emphasized as much in their learning.

Ultimately though, the true purpose of asking that simple questions and other suggestive questions, is to draw out your child’s CURIOSITY. It is this sense of curiosity that will most definitely surely get your children excited about studying what they are studying or simply anything else that you asked them.

DISCLAIMER (as usual): this does not mean however that you child must be interested in anything you ask them too.. it is up to them to choose if either candy or broccoli will nourish them, although if it is really important for them to learn something, then it is probably a good idea to ask them further about why they do not take interest in that certain subject and strongly advise them to take up the interest anyway (this may be a little dangerous, nevertheless most commonly practiced)