Essential Questions: Providing a Compass for Learning

“TO BE, OR NOT TO BE: THAT IS THE QUESTION,“ HAMLET LAMENTS IN THE THIRD ACT OF SHAKESPEARE’S MONUMENTAL PLAY. His dramatic soliloquy is arguably the best-known monologue in the English language. Though his character is veering off the deep end, in more ways than one, Hamlet’s opening query cuts to the very heart of humanity and poses the original essential question.

Prior even to the method of Socrates, essential questions have played a key role in the quest for truth. They are pole stars guiding students toward understanding and knowledge, and illuminating fertile territory for investigation and inquiry.

In a truly robust learning environment, essential questions add more to the pedagogical process than answers, facts, and figures ever could.

At The Peck School, a K-8 co-ed independent school in Morristown, NJ, each grade level has been given one overarching essential question to guide them as they encounter increasingly complex ideas over the course of the year.

The questions range from “How do we learn?” in the Kindergarten, to “How does one make a difference in the community?” in the eighth grade.

“In any given subject, there is an infinite amount of content that can be learned,” explained Chris Weaver, Director of Curriculum and Faculty Development.

“What’s nice about essential questions is that it gives students a handle to hold onto. For example, if we are studying the Civil Rights Movement, and our essential question is, ‘How do people face challenges?’ then we can learn about and look at the movement through that particular lens.

Each student can use that question in their own way to process and prioritize what they are learning. They can better empathize with the subject matter and delve as much into the depth of the content as the breadth.”

Consider a traditional third grade assignment in the study of U.S. States. One approach would be to have students memorize state names, state birds, state capitals, and perhaps do a report or presentation. The essential questions approach, on the other hand asks, “How does geography shape people?”

This question prompts a more enduring understanding and longer-term engagement with geography. Students think about geography’s impact on accents, regional taste in food, and why and how differences have evolved by state. They wonder about the origins of our differences.

As students contemplate the size of the United States, and variations in taste and thought across the country, they gain a deeper understanding of geography’s impact on behavior and culture.

Learning is a bit like digging for gold. A teacher might distribute shovels and send students into a subject area in search of understanding. Those students might dig up educational nuggets, but their mining would probably not result in lasting value or deeper meaning.

The essential questions approach lets teachers point students in the direction of fertile territory.

The most effective essential questions are those that have no right answer. They transform education from a process of “information download” to a process of information engagement in all its shades and complexity.

Great essential questions also ease the stress and tension associated with learning new content. They assist students in navigating the breadth of a subject and in prioritizing new information based on its impact and value to them as continuing learners.

Peck's essential question approach was the product of thoughtful discussion and careful incubation by the Essential Questions Committee of the Academic Council. That council came out of a curricular task force emanating from our 2015 Strategic Plan.

Transparency and self-reflexivity are also important with regards to essential questions. Faculty members spend time at the beginning of the school year helping students understand that there will not always be succinct answers to these questions, and the more we grapple with them, the more likely we are to find that our answers change.

Ultimately, many of the essential questions our faculty members introduce at Peck will lead to healthy and vigorous inquiry for the rest of our students’ lives. At the very least, our students will understand that the process of engaging with essential questions makes them wiser, more critical thinkers, and lends greater depth to their educational journey.