Arts Education and A More Beautiful Question - A Masterclass with Warren Berger, Part 1

Warren Berger's brilliant book A More Beautiful Question is a hit on the creativity and innovation scene.  It currently has an Amazon rank of #8 in neuroscience, #14 in decision-making and problem solving, and #23 in entrepreneurship.

Credit:  warrenberger.com

Berger seems to have a kinship with the arts - the title is taken from a line by the poet e.e. cummings.

The premise of the book is disarmingly simple but profound in its implications:  If questioning is the engine of innovation, why aren't we doing more to develop that skill?

His answer is spot on.

"To encourage or even allow questioning is to cede power - not something that is done lightly in hierarchical companies or in government organizations, or even in classrooms, where a teacher must be willing to give up control to allow for more questioning" (2014, p. 6).

Berger developed a three part framework - Why/What If/How - to guide us through the stages of inquiry.  He defines a beautiful question as "...an ambitious yet actionable question that can begin to shift the way we perceive or think about something - and that might serve as a catalyst to bring about change" (2014, p. 8).

Berger explores school's dampening effect on productive inquiry.  Fortunately, a solution is at hand, if only educators will take full advantage of the methodology.  Wiggins and McTighe used research about expert understanding to develop a revolutionary approach to unit design.  Understanding by Design starts with the Big Ideas that distinguish expert understanding from a mere accumulation of factoids.  They describe the Enduring Understandings that are necessary to grasp those Big Ideas.  But perhaps most importantly, they describe Essential Questions that serve as "hooks" to engage student interest and provide entry paths into the Big Ideas (Wiggins and McTighe, 2005).

A serious and sustained application of the principles of Understanding by Design could go a long way in closing the gap that Berger has exposed.

Let's follow Berger's lead for a moment.  Why do arts educators - especially arts educators in a PLC - care about this issue?

Arts educators can feel comfortable developing a questioning environment because we work in a discipline where there is usually more than one "right answer" - if indeed one exists. Arts educators in a PLC know our work is driven by questioning - specifically the four questions of the PLC process:

1. What knowledge, skills, and dispositions do our students need to have?
2. How do we know if they have acquired them?
3. What do we do if they have not acquired them?
4. What do we do if they have already acquired them?

One of the skills and dispositions that our students need to have is questioning.  Arts educators can include that in our curriculum.  We can teach for it, we can assess for it, and we can support students who fall short of our expectations.

What if arts educators used questioning to drive learning?

How can we do that?

The answers are the keys to the kingdom.

References

Berger, W. (2014). A more beautiful question: The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas. New York, NY: Bloomsbury

Wiggins, G., and McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design. Alexandria, VA:  ASCD