Dumb Questions

"There are no such thing as dumb questions!" is something my students have been telling me for years.  One of the many things I love about teaching older students (usually they are 16 or 17 when they take physics with me) is that I joke back "Really?  C'mon, we all know some questions are kind of dumb, right?"  They laugh and I laugh and we move on.

This year, however, my classes and I have been exploring this idea a bit more.  Sometimes we share a metacognitive moment: "Was that a dumb question?" or "Did I just say something dumb?" (I ask it of myself out loud as well as of my students). What has started to crystalize in my mind is that they are all dumb questions.  Aren't novice learners of physics filled with dumb questions?  And aren't they suppose to ask them and have me answer them?  If what we mean by saying something dumb like "there are no dumb questions" is really 'ask every question you have!' wouldn't it be equally effective to say "they are all dumb questions, but go ahead and ask them!"?

I'm thinking that the mantra "there is no such thing as a dumb question" may actual stifle questioning since most students are somewhat aware that there is a good chance that someone is going to think their question is dumb. So, I'm thinking, let's go ahead and acknowledge that they are all dumb up front!  In the past I have identified a question as especially dumb if I just answered it or the answer is on the board or the student could have answered it themselves with a millisecond of reflection.  But now I think that is not the classroom I want to have: fire away with your dumb question and simply forgive me if I get a bit exasperated or silently point to the answer to your question on the board.  Your job is to ask the questions and my job is to help answer them!  Also, reflecting on equity, almost all of my own questions to the class are dumb "What page is the problem set on?" "What number [problem] are we working on?"  "When does the bell ring?"  Pretty dumb stuff, right?

This year I have been especially helped in my thinking by eavesdropping on a trio of girls in the front row of one of my classes as they engage in group work.  They have a nice stream-of-consciousness style about them and I have gained many an insight listening in.  Beginning physics students are fumbling around with new vocab, new equations, new skills, etc. and it's a messy process getting to the right answers!

"There are no dumb questions" = "All questions are dumb"

"...the opposite of one Profound Truth may very well be another Profound Truth."  - Niels Bohr