Students should spend their time researching important questions, questions which require original thought. No more simple "Go Find Out About" research which requires information gathering but little thought.
If we ask students to "Go find out about Connecticut," they (and we) may drown in thousands of pages of text. Instead we ask, "Which of these cities would you move to?"
We require fresh thought. Students make answers. No simple finding and gathering.
New research is more like shopping and cooking. We expect students to select and gather the choicest raw ingredients with great care and then cook their own meal. No microwave research reports! No fast food! No simple cut-and-paste. McKenzie, Jamie. "The Question is the Answer." http://questioning.org/module/module1.html. (20 March. 2001). |
| "We want students to become rigorous thinkers, accomplished readers and writers and problem solvers who can make connections and distinctions between ideas. But the most reliable guide to a process that is promoting these things is not grades or tests or scores: it is the student's level of interest." (Alfie Kohn, Punished by Rewards) |
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