Reversing the "Why are we Learning This?" Frustration

    Chapter 2 of Karin Hess’s book Rigor by Design, Not Chance: Deeper Thinking Through Actionable Instruction and Assessment, provides the reasons for and tools to ask students a series of probing questions. Hess reminds readers that “the art of questioning is at the heart of good teaching and deeper learning” (p. 32). She qualifies that not all questions are created equal and stresses the importance of probing questions, or open-ended questions that connect student thinking to essential learning.

    Teachers need to teacher their students how to engage in questioning as well as be scaffolded to develop their own questions and Hess provides these teacher tips for effective questioning in their classrooms:

• Practice using wait (and think) time
• Brainstorm without judgment
• Ask all students to respond at the same time
• Model curiosity in order to make your own thinking visible

    There are teachers who get frustrated when their students query, “why are we learning this?” They interpret the question as a challenge to their classroom authority and a disruption technique of students who are often off-task. However, this chapter reminds us that questioning can be a powerful tool for students. Rather than thinking of questions as argumentative, teachers should embrace questioning (and be ready to help connect learning to students’ lives).

    Two resources that could be valuable for teachers who may want support for crafting engaging questions or encouraging students to craft their own questions are the book Good Questions: Great Ways to Differentiate Mathematics Instruction in the Standards-Based Classroom by Marian Small and the website www.wonderopolis.org. Marian Small is a math education guru and encourages teachers to provide multiple entry points into a mathematics lesson with the use of open questions as well as parallel tasks. For example

• 72 is ___% of ____. Make this true as many ways as you can.
• 350 and 550. How are these numbers alike and different?
• An expression involving the variable k has the value of 10 when k=4. What could the expression be?

    On the flip-side, Wonderopolis is a community of questions that could spark student curiosity toward their own investigations, or simply as a place to build background knowledge in a way that is engaging. The site has many parts including collections of wonders, an opportunity to record what you are wondering today, and a way to see wonders that are categorized by subject. For example, in the category of math, students may explore, “what is a multiple?” Unlike a classroom that is still building a culture of curiosity, this site makes curiosity the norm. Students engaging with Wonderopolis may gain comfort knowing that questions are common-place, not sources of frustration.


Hess, K. (2023). Rigor by design, not chance: Deeper thinking through actionable instruction and assessment. ASCD.

Small, Marian. Good questions: Great ways to differentiate mathematics instruction in the standards-based classroom. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2020.

I Knew Motivation Mattered! (Ch. 1 - Laying the Foundation for Deeper Learning)

    This is not the first time I have taken courses toward a master’s degree in education. Following completion of my undergraduate degree in business administration, I enrolled in a teacher-preparation program whose coursework was at the graduate level. I finished all of the licensure coursework and in the fall of 2007 was enrolled in the final class which required the research of and paper to be written on a topic applicable to the mathematics teaching of middle school students. I enthusiastically submitted my topic by completing the first assignment, an annotated bibliography, and then I did not finish the course. The topic I had chosen was motivation in the middle school math classroom. My advisor provided me with feedback that it was not an appropriate topic to fulfill requirements for the course. Fast forward 16 years. In her book Rigor by Design not Chance: Deeper Thinking Through Actionable Instruction and Assessment, author Karin Hess discusses the role of engagement in cognitive rigor.

    Citing her 2009 research into the topic, Hess summarizes that emotional engagement is the foundation of the cognitive engagement of students with academic content. “(It) begins with emotional engagement when students make personal connections that answer such questions as, Why do I want to learn this? Or How is this relevant to me?” (Hess, p. 21). Additionally, Hess includes an overview of brain research and summarizes that the emotional climate of learning, whether enjoyable or stressful “really does make a difference in your level of engagement and in how much you actually learn and are able to remember” (Hess, p.17). I am excited that the importance of motivation has begun to be researched and documented in a variety of ways. The chapter noted that providing students with project-based learning (PBL) opportunities allowed them to explore their interests and connect them to classroom content. Interested in linking more resources and tools that could be used to share this information with colleagues, I looked to Lucas Education Research, the research arm of the George Lucas Educational Foundation made possible by imaginative movie maker George Lucas.

    The PBL briefs assembled can act as a resource for any educator team who is trying to make a case for integrating PBL into their grade-level team or school curriculum. In an age where students are formally assessed multiple times, my district took both the i-Ready Diagnostic battery of tests and the Ohio Department of Education Restart Readiness Benchmark tests in addition to teacher-assigned exams, project-based learning gives students an opportunity to explore real-world problems and make their classroom learning more relevant. One of the briefs, The Evidence is Clear: Rigorous Project-Based Learning is an Effective Lever for Student Success endorsed the use of a free on-line tool: https://sprocket.educurious.org/ for any teachers or schools trying to implement PBL.

    Though rigor is not limited to factors of engagement and motivation, teachers must consider their students when designing classroom instruction. Gone are the days when teachers could teach the same content, to the same grade-level, for multiple years without deviation. In order to get classrooms of students ready for participation in and financial power in a 21st century economy we must engage our students so that they are free to think and connect with academic content in a meaningful way.


Hess, K. (2023). Rigor by design, not chance: Deeper thinking through actionable instruction and assessment. ASCD.

Lucas Education Research.(2021). Research briefs. George Lucas Educational Foundation. https://www.lucasedresearch.org/research/research-briefs/

 Testing 1,2,3 - today is the day before class begins. I'm looking forward to learning (and blog-ing).