My CFE was at the Vancouver Aquarium where I taught small groups of students from grades K-11 about Marine Biology using interactive resources. These interactive resources included real live animals, dead animal props, and simulation props. My teachables are Physics and Chemistry, so the content was the science I was less familiar with.
One of my challenges was asking good questions without knowing the content behind these questions. It was difficult creating good questions that lead to meaningful learning without knowing the important concepts. I felt less comfortable asking questions that I couldn’t answer myself, so I asked more simple questions and I hated that! Thus, I no longer know if I can ask good questions outside of my subject areas. I’m not sure what is my mental block that is stopping me from asking questions I’m not comfortable with. Perhaps I no longer know what is a “good question”. Asking a question as a beginner learner could encourage cooperative learning with the student. Asking a question I don’t have the answer to could model asking questions as a vulnerable task and feeling vulnerable is fine! Having lead fewer to no discussions driven by me asking these open questions, I may have lost a chance to create a safe learning environment for my students to ask questions without the fear of the unknown. Furthermore, asking the right questions at the right time is important for student as well as teacher learning.