Does it matter how we answer children's questions?

"Why is the sky blue?" "Why do we have to eat vegetables?" Children often bombard parents and educators with many questions. What do we do? Do we ignore the question or do we answer them? How do we answer them?

As parents, we can do a lot to encourage higher order thinking when we are answering children's questions. MOE has announced that the way English is taught to upper primary pupils will be changed so that the focus will be on making them speak the language more confidently and to know to use it beyond the classroom. MOE will also be tweaking the PSLE English Examination in 2015. The changes aim to help prepare pupils for the 21st century workplace which demands strong communication skills and higher order skills like analytical skills and critical thinking skills.  How can parents encourage the development of higher order skills at home? 

Came across an article on encouraging higher order thinking a few years ago when I was doing research for a course on gifted education conducted jointly by MOE and GERRIC, University of New South Wales. Managed to find the article and would like to share the gist of the article here. 

According to Robert Sternberg, a professor psychology and education at Yale University, we can categorise our responses to children's questions into seven levels, from low to high. Here are the seven levels:

Level 1: Reject the question

Question: "Why do I have to drink milk?"

Answer: "Don't ask." or "I said so."

Level 2: Restate or almost restate the question as a response

Question: "Why do I have to drink milk?"

Answer: "Because you have to drink milk."

Question: "Why is the room so warm?"

Answer: "It is 34 °C outside."

Level 3: Admit ignorance or present information

Question: "Why is the sky blue?"

Answer: "I don't know but that's a good question." 

OR Give a factual answer

Question: "Why is the sky blue?"

Answer: "The sky is blue because ..." 

Level 4: Voice encouragement to seek response through authority

Answer: "Let's look that up in the encyclopedia." OR

              "Let's look that up on the Internet."

Level 5: Encourage the child to brainstorm together or consider alternative explanations

Question: "What determines a person's intelligence?"

Answer: "Let's brainstorm some possible answers."

               "Maybe it's due to genetics or maybe it's due to the environment . Perhaps it's due to        

               _____________."

Level 6: Encourage the child to consider alternative explanations and think of a means of evaluating them

Question: "What determines a person's intelligence?"

Answer: "How are we going to evaluate the possible answer of genetics? Where would we find that 

                  information? What about information on the environment?"     

Level 7: Encourage the child to consider alternative explanations plus a means of evaluating them and follow through on evaluation

Question: "What determines a person's intelligence?"

Answer: "Let's search for the information. We'll search through the encyclopedia and the Internet. Then we will get back together next week and evaluate our findings." 

Question: "Should children have a Facebook account?"

Answer: "Let's conduct interviews or contact people whom we know to do a survey. Then we will get back together a few days later to evaluate our findings."

According to Robert Sternberg, parents should avoid answering children's questions at Levels 1 and 2. Hopefully, this article will provide parents with some insights on how to have discussions that can help their children develop critical thinking.

Source:

Sternberg, Robert., (1994) Answering Questions and Questioning Answers: Guiding Children to Intellectual Excellence. Phi Delta Kappan. 76(2), 136-138.