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| Hummingbirds and the Girl, Hafsa Uwais, Grade 7 |
Children believe their questions
are not valuable. They fear their peers’ ridicule for askin a “stupid
question”. Or they are discouraged by teachers from interrupting a class and
derailing the delivery of a lesson. However, as educators, we want children to
ask engaging questions which represent a quest of sorts – which inspire
children to drive their learning in a bid to find out more.
How can an educator inspire questions?
I do not mean the regular “Do I write this in my notebook?” or “When do I have
to submit this?”. But questions which come when a child engages with something
that sparks her curiosity. The ones that bubble right up, reflecting the wonder
in a child’s mind. These are rare!
At Al Qamar Academy, we try
several ways to get children to come up with questions. During lockdown, one
attempt involved sharing the Weekly video from The
Kid Should See This. This particular
video showed a little girl holding a container as several hummingbirds come to
feed. Many flap around her while one or two dart in to take a sip from the
bowl. The child stays absolutely still and the birds show no fear of her.
We posted a Google Form alongside
the video and asked kids from Grades 5-8 to jot down whatever questions struck
them while watching the video. The video
must have really fascinated the children and inspired them with wonder because
we got a lot of questions from them.
One kind of question was driven
by immediate observations “What’s the girl feeding the birds?”, “Why are only a
few drinking, while the rest just stand or flap in the air?” “What’s in the
bowl?”
Another variant went deeper –
“How do hummingbirds stay suspended in the air?” The video challenged their
mental models of birds flapping their wings and moving. These birds were
flapping their wings – very rapidly – and not moving.
“How did the birds trust the girl?” was
another such query – children have seen “domesticated” birds like hens being
familiar with humans. But seeing a “wild” bird overcoming its fear of humans
and coming close made them wonder. The converse of this question was the one wondering
why the girl herself was not scared of getting hurt. Maybe the children were putting themselves in
her shoes and thinking what they would have done in a similar situation. They
got an insight that the girl had to be very patient in order to be so still.
A third category of questions
extended the children’s thinking. “How
many times does the hummingbird flap its wings?” “What makes them flap their
wings so often?” “How do hummingbirds move?” “Why do they have such a long
beak?” These set of questions went deeper into the mechanics of flight,
feeding, and bird behavior.
As an educator, perhaps the most
thought provoking questions were the non-questions. “Why did Aunty show this
kind of a video?” “Where are the facts in this?” “Is this supposed to be a
funny video?” Some of these posers helped me reflect on what was going on in the
children’s minds – were they expecting a video which had a clear beginning, middle
and resolution in the end? Were they
expecting an edifying commentary which laid out the facts and figures? This video
with an almost silent depiction of real life – what purpose did it serve? Some
children hate ambiguity – they balk at open ended questions which don’t have
clear right or wrong answers. They flee from being asked to ask questions – it
challenges their sense of self as a student. But I was surprised that these
bright, and highly original children being discomfited by the video.
What was intriguing was the fact
that most other children asked so many questions. We struggle in class to get
them to ask a few. It becomes a chore for them and they simply pose a question to
get the teacher off their back. So, what changed in this situation?
Could the medium – a visual real
life video have made a difference? This was not textual learning. But something
they could see, hear and think about.
Was it the little girl – roughly
their own age, which made them relate to her and wonder?
Could it have been that they watched
the video in the peace and quiet of their homes – so they had time and space to
ponder over it. In school, they may be getting distracted – their friends are
around, there’s games to be played, notes to be exchanged, gossip to be shared
– all while watching a video.
Did parents play a role – were
there some stimulating discussions that happened?
All these factors should be
explored to understand what caused the breakthrough we had. Till then, we are
going to keep sharing more thought provoking videos and hoping for a gold mine
of questions from the kids.
Aneesa Jamal
Al Qamar Academy
