Questioning to Understand the Foundations of Academic Disciplines
Understand a discipline by asking what it studies, how it tests claims, and where its limits lie. Questions about plant classification in botany or social norms in sociology give an inquiry direction beyond following a textbook’s sequence.
THE IDEA
Questioning to Understand the Foundations of Academic Disciplines
To understand a discipline, formulate questions about what it studies, how it works, and what it leaves unresolved. A textbook, instructor, or encyclopedia can help you begin; use that introduction to develop questions of your own. Science, botany, and sociology offer examples.
Asking Essential Questions in Science
Science is the study of the physical world and universe through systematic observation and experimentation. One of its primary goals is to identify universally applicable laws and principles about the physical world and its interrelationships. Numerous branches of science form as scientists pose new scientific questions emerging from new scientific knowledge. By asking and pursuing scientific questions we can better understand the physical world and make better decisions about it.
Some fundamental scientific questions include:
- What is science?
- What are some methods scientists use in making discoveries and developing theories? How do these methods differ from study in "non-scientific" fields?
- What kind of systematic study is characteristic of science?
- What significant positive implications have resulted from scientific research?
- What roles do math and logic play in scientific thinking?
- How can scientific research be misused?
- What are the main branches of science and how do they interrelate?
- How is scientific thinking making a contribution to our personal lives? Are there any ways in which it is a threat?
- What are some limitations of science?
Now let us focus on one branch of science: Botany. Botany is the study of plant life and how plants interrelate with the rest of the physical world. Do you see why the following are essential questions in botany?
- What is botany?
- What is plant classification and why is it important?
- How do plants function, both as a group and individually?
- How is plant life important to animal life?
- How is animal life important to plant life?
- How does plant life interact with its natural habitat? How can we maximize the fit between plants and their habitats?
- What are some implications of the loss of plant life on the planet?
- What are some important uses of plant life, in medicine, in lumber production, in food production?
- How can we balance exploitation of plant life for the needs and desires of people with maintaining essential plant life on earth?
Asking Essential Questions in the Social Disciplines
The social disciplines include academic courses that foster understanding of the individuals, groups and institutions that make up human society. They study how humans live together in groups in such a way that their dealings with one another affect their common welfare. The social disciplines focus on gaining and applying knowledge about human relationships and interactions between individuals and their families, religious or ethnic communities, cities, governments, and other social groups. Some branches of social studies are considered social sciences, though systematic experimentation on humans is difficult. Some of the branches of social studies are history, anthropology, geography, economics, psychology, sociology, and the study of politics.
Let us briefly focus on one social discipline: sociology. Sociology is the study of group behavior, focused both on how groups function as an internal system and how groups influence the behavior of individuals within the group. In every social group, some behavior is required, some behavior is taboo, and some behavior is permitted. Sociology studies the taboos, social conventions, and norms of cultural groups.
Some essential sociological questions:
- What is society? What is culture? To what extent is human behavior controlled by them?
- How do cultural beliefs, customs, mores and taboos come to dominate people's lives?
- How do cultural beliefs, customs, mores, and taboos function within any particular group?
- To what extent are people influenced by cultural views? To what extent do people tend to think for themselves in the face of established views?
- How do the characteristics of people who conform differ from those who dissent?
- What are some of the implications of, and possibilities for, non-conforming behavior?
- Of the groups in which we are members, what behavior is demanded, what behavior is forbidden, and what range of free decision is allowed?
- To what extent do social customs violate human rights?
- To what extent do social norms foster unethical behavior?
- To what extent do cultures tend to confuse social customs with ethics? What phenomena within cultures foster this confusion?
When to use it
Use essential questions to structure a course syllabus or learning plan.
When researching a new topic, start by identifying the fundamental questions that researchers in that field ask.
In a group discussion, use essential questions to guide the conversation towards deeper understanding.
Apply this concept to evaluate the importance of different topics in a textbook by considering which questions they answer.
FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE
In practice
Essential Questions in Botany
- What is botany?
- What is plant classification and why is it important?
- How do plants function, both as a group and individually?
- How is plant life important to animal life?
- How is animal life important to plant life?
- How does plant life interact with its natural habitat? How can we maximize the fit between plants and their habitats?
- What are some implications of the loss of plant life on the planet?
- What are some important uses of plant life, in medicine, in lumber production, in food production?
- How can we balance exploitation of plant life for the needs and desires of people with maintaining essential plant life on earth?
Essential Questions in Sociology
- What is society? What is culture? To what extent is human behavior controlled by them?
- How do cultural beliefs, customs, mores and taboos come to dominate people's lives?
- How do cultural beliefs, customs, mores, and taboos function within any particular group?
- To what extent are people influenced by cultural views? To what extent do people tend to think for themselves in the face of established views?
- How do the characteristics of people who conform differ from those who dissent?
- What are some of the implications of, and possibilities for, non-conforming behavior?
- Of the groups in which we are members, what behavior is demanded, what behavior is forbidden, and what range of free decision is allowed?
- To what extent do social customs violate human rights?
- To what extent do social norms foster unethical behavior?
- To what extent do cultures tend to confuse social customs with ethics? What phenomena within cultures foster this confusion?
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Put it to work.
Identify an academic discipline you are studying. What are three fundamental questions that define its core?
How might the practice of formulating essential questions change the way you approach learning a new subject?
Reflect on a time when asking a deep question helped you understand a concept better. What was the question and how did it help?
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Source texts
- The Art of Asking Essential Questions Based on Critical Thinking Concepts and Socratic Principles (Linda Elder, Richard Paul)