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New Horizons in Education, Vol.61, No.1, Jan 2013

Inculcate Questioning Skills and Incubate Personal Knowledge Networking for Self-Directed and Life-Long Learning

TSE Pak Hoi, Isaac Po Leung Kuk Yao Ling Sun College

Abstract Background: Assuming literacy and adequate reading up to the completion of junior secondary schooling, two further questions are asked in this research, namely, “How could senior secondary pupils learn to raise knowledge building questions?”, and, “What is worth learning to earn life-long utility?” Research approaches: A grounded theory action research approach is employed to answer the first question, exploring outcomes from training starter senior secondary school pupils what to ask and how to ask meaningful issue-based questions. Inductive exposition is employed to verify “What is worth learning?” for self-directed and life-long learning. Discussion focus: For six years involving eight cohorts in one school, totally 1500 senior secondary pupils were asked to raise questions of any kind that they think is problematic enough to constitute a potential cognitive issue. That translates to over 10,000 questions scored. Here, an easy evaluative tool deemed appropriate at their cognitive level is reported. Applying Dynamical Systems Theory, deep learning is considered the emergence of totally different understanding to resolve disturbing far-from-equilibrium bombardment of new information to established mental image. Remote knowledge like the inorganic chemistry of rare-earth metal is of little use, but multiple perspectives of modern world connections make rare-earth metal worthy to constitute a personalized knowledge network so long as the debate sustains in the immediate world around. Suggestion: Personalized knowledge network is the key to respond to the question “What is worth learning?” Keep asking disturbing questions and resolving with new information input, this episode exploring rare-earth metal verifies “What is worth learning for the future?” The acid test on knowledge worthiness is whether it is applicable to rationalize solution to daily life problems or not. The proof of mastery is that pupils be able to present their idea legibly in a sequence of information hierarchy, employing multiple perspectives of good retrospective questioning to reach a consolidated robust total solution.

Keywords: Questioning skills, Liberal Studies, Dynamical Systems Theory

以培育提問技能和孕育個人化知識網絡為自主學習與終身學習的起點

謝伯開香港保良局姚連生中學

摘要

　　背景：假設學生在初中畢業時，識字和閱讀能力已就緒；本研究追問另外兩個問題，即“高中學生如何學習得到足以提高知識建構成效的提問技能？＂和“什麼議題值得學習，終身受用？＂　　研究方法：回答第一個問題，本行動研究採用紮根理論導向，從訓練高中學生起動探索“問什麼?＂，“怎樣問？＂， 以及如何提出有意義的問題為前提，審視並將收集得的問題歸類成一學生自評的簡單工具。又以歸納闡述一起特選時事為例，驗證“什麼議題值得學習？＂。從而滙報一個如何啟廸高中學生起動自主終身學習的操練方向。　　討論焦點：跨越六年，在一所學校內連續八屆共1500名高中學生每週被要求分組提交他們認為有爭議的任何形式的問題。本文歸納出一個合適高中生認知水平的簡單自我評估提問質素的工具。按動態或變系統理論演繹，深層次學習須經歷並克服趨失平衡的混沌光景才能達成；意即既存腦圖受新而不相容的訊息嚴重衝擊，經反覆慎思、成功理順後，悟出全新道理來。用稀土金屬為例，它的無機化學知識對常人好像沒有多大用處；但轉看在現代科技世界中，稀土與今日全球化政治經濟千絲萬縷的連繫足以反覆在國際舞臺評論上被議論。稀土金屬於是成為值得構成個人化知識網絡的議題。　　建議：回應“什麼議題值得學習，終身受用？＂這個問題，建立個人化知識網絡是關鍵過濾工具。忠告高中生開始努力融會新思維的衝擊、解決新輸入的矛盾信息，兼容二極介面，建構可貫通的個人化知識網絡交叉節。探索稀土金屬這個情節驗證了“什麼是值得我們學習的未來知識？＂對口適切的嚴峻考驗是“這議題能否合理地支援處理現實生活上的問題呢？＂如學生可以用具多層次結構序列的信息清楚對議題提出自己的想法，採用多角度反詰而達致一個統一解決方案，便證明已掌握�動自主終身學習的竅門。

　　關鍵詞：提問技巧、通識教育、動態或變系統理論

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Assuming literacy at junior secondary level, our information world expects young people to be critical thinkers and independent expert of their personal rights on future issues, able to filter out noise and identify truth from voices.

Q u e s t i o n i n g s k i l l s a r e p a r a m o u n t t o making meaningful queries to counter upcoming unprecedented daily life problems today and tomorrow. Nurture senior secondary pupils towards solving daily life problems by self-directed analysis and first hand project investigation is the design goal of recent curriculum reform, and resulted in a new compulsory subject named Liberal Studies in the New Senior Secondary (NSS) curriculum framework in Hong Kong. The controversial subject, after ten years of preparation, is having an unanticipated outcome from the first cohort of candidates in the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) Examination in July 2012. Excessive effort has been paid by teachers, pupils and the community alike in the preparation process; what lessons should be crystallized for the future?

The Very Old Search for Ways of Nurturing Good Issue-Based

Questioning

“Children everywhere are schooled to become masters at answering questions and to remain novices at asking them (Dillon, 1988).” Questioning in the rote-learning days is essentially a gesture demanding replay of predictable behavior, often simple recall of factual responses. Pupils were not rewarded in public examinations for being able to ask good questions. However, when we put scores in examinations aside, we tend to agree that “Questioning is the first element of information inquiry (Callison, 2006).”

Good questioning is an old concern in preparing good teachers. Booklets have been published, e.g. Millar, (1989), Brown & Wragg (1993), Wragg & Brown (2001). Millar (1989) advocated “The Four C’s of Good Questioning”, Courteous, Cogent, Concise, and Clear, which sounds proper for beginner teachers but seems rather remote from the reality of classroom interactions nowadays. Seasoned frontline teachers intuitively feel that the 4Cs seem to be rare attributes of a few young people in classroom interactions. If we wish self-directed and life-long learning be seen a commonplace habit in future, we better start nurturing good questioning skills in young adults.

In an era of knowledge society, we expect graduates, not only teachers, to be able to think critically, be independent thinkers and able to solve problems encountered in reality, for their own good or for their clients in future. We need something better than simple recall of factual data, especially if data are readily available online with mobile communication tools. During formal learning sessions, we should demand questions that may stimulate imagination and creative thinking, and to be delivered in clear, precise and concise language. Precise presentation of innovative ideas is, however, a serious exploiting and learning process.

Contemporary efficient mobile communication tools nurture young people in the opposite direction. They communicate with their peers using broken, incomplete, and even distorted phrases in their mobile texts, and even in face-to-face social settings. Teaching contemporary pupils towards good questioning is challenging; motivation towards good questioning through examination is an incompatible link; assessment in this way is probably an unfair comparison. Objective testing on good questioning is not an option because the answers do not reflect

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effort but is the resultant outcome of complex factors including background knowledge, right exposure to the topic under investigation, acquisition of the right vocabulary, language competency, attitude and sincerity, etc. In an examination-skewed school atmosphere, whatever not to be examined or said to be “outside the syllabus” are not worthy of learning at all. It is time to right the wrong once we shift our success of schooling audit from results in public examination to life-long achievement in reality! Guiding pupils to ask good questions is difficult to achieve wide success among senior secondary pupils but it is worth the effort. Reality is not restrained by any written syllabus; to benefit from life-long learning, young adults have to identify meaningful questions on their own and be good at asking them in logical consecutive order.

Examination-oriented pupils have the hard-burned impression that there is always one definite right answer to every question raised in class, and that the answer is either in the mind of the teacher or somewhere in the textbook. They have learned to refrain from making open response that may not be a perfect fit to the standard model answer. In reality outside the classroom, adults know that answers to unprecedented queries are always tentative, merely the best option adequate for the time being. Skilled knowledge workers know that knowledge and answers nowadays are subject to modification by the introduction of new information. All real cases are in one way or another deviate from the claimed norm or mode; every case is somewhat unique in their own right. To inculcate good thought-provoking questioning in pupils, non-intimidating low risk Trial and Error exercises would be a safe approach to nurture self-confidence and to establish efficient critical thinking habit.

Training Senior Secondary Pupils to Ask Proper Issue-Based Questions

At Po Leung Kuk Yao Ling Sun College, Hong Kong, we run three semesters in one academic year. Since 2005/06, we have asked senior high pupils to raise questions that they think are difficult issues for two-out-of-three semesters in one year. Pupils work in groups of four. Ideally, each member of the group keeps raising questions to be pooled in the group. They meet weekly to try responding to questions in the pool; eventually one question is picked and submitted to the Principal via their form-teacher. Pupils exercise self-directed learning up to this point. The form teacher may then respond, or invite relevant subject teachers to respond in writing before sending the script to the Principal. The Principal will rate the quality of the question scripts accordingly to 4 designated rank levels, 1 - being good and innovative; 2 - being common yet relevant, reasonably good and well thought through; 3 - barely pass, maybe demanding direct factual information, 4 - is unsatisfactory, either in poor logic in the question statement such as internal contradiction or based on wrong assumption or information. The Principal may also respond by pinpointing a personal understanding as a seasoned learner on what was being asked, or giving a multiple perspective explanation/interpretation towards that question, or a multi-tier answer to the question. Pupils may easily sense if the question scrutinized is proper and attractive by the length of the written responses. The exercise has sustained for the past 6 years, giving each group of pupils a maximum of 22 weeks for submitting issue-based questions to the Principal in each year for three years. Rough estimation of questions that the Principal scored amount to over 10,800 in six years – a database strong enough to allow drawing grounded theory inferences and to revisit inferences recurrently to reinforce deductions.

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Logical capability and language skills affect the presentation of questions. Apart from that, outcome quality of questions is the result of a complex interaction of cumulated knowledge from extensive reading experiences, current skimming of books and magazines, deep thinking on subject related textbooks and co-curricular readings, prompts from subject teachers on curriculum related issues, and interdisciplinary exploitations, motivation and group efficacy of individual pupil groups, screening effort of form-teachers, etc.

In our experience, pupils are generally weak in differentiating between “questions” and “issues”. Our effort of rating question scripts is like employing repeated process of telling what is red colour by contrasting what are and what are not red, in hope that eventually pupils understand what characterizes an issue that worth further exploration.

Evaluate our logistic design based on the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001), Bloom et.al., 1956), we bypass assessing pupils of demonstrating their remembering and understanding of the specific area of knowledge they address, but address their attempt to apply knowledge to new situations, to query general beliefs (evidence of analyzing), to challenge what the Principal said (analyzing and evaluating), or to create novo proposals to test learned theory; and rate those scripts high in response.

Unfortunately, it is rare to see chain queries submitted after reading a response from the Principal (clear evidence of analyzing, evaluating, and even creating). Our observation of frequent repetitions of similar submission between years and across classes reflect rare exercise of visiting school web site for submitted questions accumulated in past years, a

sign of inadequate motivation and minimal curiosity towards open search of knowledge outside the public examination syllabus.

In a recent review based on random question scripts collected between April and May of 2012, an easy tool is proposed here for pupil group self-evaluation. The primordial instrument includes six unacceptable categories (classified as Xn) and two accredited categories (Yn). Below is the list and translation of some authentic sample questions (see Appendix 1 for pupils’ original wording in Chinese) beginning with the class pupils come from:

X1 Informational, not an issue (cum concurred with wrong information)

5A Iron rust could not be reverted to iron metal, would iron be depleted on earth when all iron metal gets rusted? 4E What is the matter making thunder and lightning in the sky?

X2 Open-ended questions -- for free discussion, not an issue

4A Isn’t WTO a platform for equitable international trade, why is the platform dominated by developed countr ies , resulting in rising incidents of international trade conflicts and intensification of disparity between the rich and the poor?

X3 Too big a puzzled field, far from being an issue

3C How to harness cosmic power? 4D Why do people pursue specific targets blindly?

X4 Unsettleddefinitions(shifteduseofsimulatedvocabulary that wobbles the focus)

4E How to make colour dyes?

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3A Seismic zones will sooner or later shift to Hong Kong, what preparations shall we make?

X5 Yes-No questions -- closed answer, nothing further to puzzle about

5C Should Hong Kong levy sales tax? 3A Could gene mutation turn human into zombies?

X6 Unproductive “Why?” queries 5C Why do newspapers make promiscuous pages? Wouldn’t that harm the impression of that tabloid? 5B Why should people feel hungry?

Poor questions of X5 types could be readily improved by appending a “Why?”, to exploit deeper thought unless the main stem of the question included a restrictive “You”, which then may result in type X6 unproductive answer such as “My preference!”. In contrast, we have two promising good categories (classified as Y1 and Y2), including

Y1 Well-thought query 3B Would underground coal mines on fire be burnt completely? 3B Dr. Principal, you posted in school hall “If you were born poor, it’s not your mistake. If you die poor, it is!” What if an infant dies in hunger in a deprived nation, should the infant concerned be responsible?

Y2 Query that has rich potential for further explorations

3B Why do fruits detached from the branches continue to ripe? 5B Salt dissolves in water, why not in ethanol?

The simplistic tool developed is certainly rudimentary and is at best good only for self-learning starters. There are certainly advanced questioning techniques useful for specific professions that warrant life-long learning. In the article “The Art of Questioning”, Launer (2002) recommended Thomm (1988) and his clinical skills of asking “lineal, circular, strategic or reflexive questions”.

Examination-oriented schooling trains pupils to see learning as the accumulation of known information into manageable knowledge. A relevant metaphor to the entire schooling process cum self-revision is the filling of an empty glass with water. Adding a further volume of water into a half-filled glass does not make much difference in breakthrough of thinking or understanding in the subject matter. In the light of complexity theories (cum Chaos theory and Dynamical Systems Theory), learning is a matter of disturbing established belief in mind with contradictory new information into a chaotic situation; the two extremes of outcomes is either ignore the new information as noise and return to the original equilibrium of established belief; or else bifurcate into a new unprecedented trajectory of understanding, a breakthrough in exploring new knowledge paradigm (Tse, 2010a). In brief, deep learning constitutes the three stages of metamorphosis, namely, far-from equilibrium disturbances, deep thinking, and bifurcation to a new conceptualization paradigm (which is the strange attractor in Complexity Theories terms).

Questions in pen and paper written examinations are often closed loops, and the training towards expertise in answering questions common in public examinations is deemed inadequate in preparing pupils for future reality. This observation led Hong Kong to undergo capital reform of curriculum and

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examination starting 1998, with the first cohort of pupils commencing NSS in September 2009, depart from the older Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination (last cohort 2010) and Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination (last cohort 2012).

Education Reform Built the Bridge to Issue-Enquiry Scaffolding

Dated back to January 1996, the then Board of Education, the statutory body established in 1920 to advise the Director of Education on educational matters in Hong Kong and merged with Education Commission in January 20031, sent three parallel teams to visit school systems in Japan, San Francisco, and Scandinavia (Norway and Sweden) in preparation for the review of compulsory education in Hong Kong. The team to Scandinavia brought back success stories of inclusive education; the team to U.S. proposed running of project learning; and the team to Japan reported an observation common to Hong Kong pupils – high score in public examinations but impotent to identify, to isolate and to solve problems in daily life.2

Subsequently in the 1999 consultation document “Education Blueprint for the 21st Century”, one of the Aims of School Education is to

Encourage students to take the initiative to

learn: School education should nurture in students a spirit of self-motivation and self-learning, and the ability to think and create. These can enable students to have full self-confidence, with the drive to keep on learning for their own development and the advancement of the society. (p.18).

One of the outcomes of the review is to reform the examination system, to simplify curriculum structure, and the university admission systems. In matching the aim of acquiring knowledge, practical and technical skills at secondary school education level, the consultation document recommends to nurture self-learning aptitude and ability (Education Commission, 1999, p.40), including maintaining curiosity and an inquiring mind, and a desire for life-long learning, mastery of learning skills, cultivation of reading habit, be competent in Information Technology, skills for collecting and utilizing information, skills useful for further study, work and life (including the ability to take care of oneself and apply modern technology) (Education Commission, 1999, p.41).

The introduction of a new subject, the NSS Liberal Studies, was a breakthrough to end the long dispute of having an Arts subject for all Science students and a Science subject for all Arts students. This brave innovation emerged after lengthy heated debates in the Curriculum Development Committee of the Hong Kong Education Department whether Geography, and then Mathematics, and then Computer Studies be classified as Arts or Science subjects respectively. With the inception of this innovative subject that aims to reflect pupils’ problem-solving capability, reform of public examination for secondary school education takes form and emerges to complement the New Senior Secondary curriculum (NSS). Departed from the British convention of 3 years senior secondary plus two years Advanced Level (or Matriculation) and then 3 years undergraduate study, NSS takes three years after the three Junior Secondary school years, followed by a reform of tertiary education from three years to four years. NSS was first implemented in September 2009, anticipating first cohort of graduates in July 2012.

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The Parents’ Handbook for Liberal Studies (Education Bureau, 2012)3 stipulated three curriculum aims ABC, namely, (A) to enhance their Awareness of their society, their nation, the human world and the physical environment, as well as develop positive values; (B) to Broaden their knowledge base and expand their perspectives on things; and (C) to Connect knowledge across different disciplines and enhance their Critical thinking skills. An independent project-based Issue-enquiry Study4 component connects HKDSE candidates to face, analyze and interpret real life problems of their choice under the guidance of their teachers, broadens their horizon to the first node of their personal in-depth knowledge network that they would scaffold throughout their subsequent life.

2012 Liberal Studies in HKDSE

The first Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) in 2012 required candidates to attempt four compulsory subjects, namely, Chinese Language, English Language, Mathematics

(Compulsory part) and Liberal Studies, plus a norm of two elective subjects. In contrast to conventional norm-referenced public examination assessments, the new HKDSE takes Standards-referenced assessment5 -- Level 5 being the highest achievement, followed by Levels 4, 3, 2, 1 and then U for unclassified and not assessed. To maintain inter-year and between subjects standards consistency, moderation procedures would be exercised before settling on the cutting scores for each standards level.

On top of the Standards-referenced reporting system is added among Level 5 two further higher recognition -- Level 5 candidates with the best performance (top 10%) will have their results annotated with the symbols ‘**’ and the next top group (top30%) with the symbol ‘*’ (HKEAA, 2011); hence these two levels may be considered norm-referenced.

Results of the first cohort of full-time day school candidates in these four subjects, compared with some traditional elective subjects, are as follows:

Table 1Results of First Cohort of Full-time Day School Candidates in New DSE Subjects and Traditional Elective Subjects

DSE Subject 5** Level 2 & above U (Unclassified)Chinese Language 0.8% 79.3% 3.9%English Language 0.8% 79.2% 10.0%Mathematics (Compulsory part) 1.1% 79.7% 8.3%Liberal Studies 0.8% 90.8%6 1.1%Geography 0.7% 83.4% 5.3%Biology 1.6% 89.0% 3.4%Chemistry 2.1% 87.0% 4.8%Physics 2.4% 88.7% 3.1%Economics 1.4% 82.5% 5.7%

Note. Table constructed from HKEAA Press release 19 July 2012.

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Level 2 Liberal Studies candidates have demonstrated ability in the following:

show basic knowledge and understanding of

the key ideas and concepts of the subject by applying relevant knowledge and concepts to simple issues in particular contextsidentify and gather relevant information

c o n s i d e r a n d i n t e r p r e t b r i e f l y t h e

interdependence among personal, local, national and global issues from some perspectivesdescribe viewpoints and give their own

opinions and suggestions supported by a few examplescommunicate simple ideas in a balanced way

identify evidence, demonstrate tolerance

towards particular viewswork wi th some re l iance on teachers ’

instructions and reflect broadly on the implementation of the enquiry learning processIn contrast, Level 5 Liberal Studies candidates

are able to:s h o w c o m p r e h e n s i v e k n o w l e d g e a n d

understanding of the key ideas and concepts of the subject by applying relevant knowledge and concepts to a diverse range of complex issues in particular contextsident i fy, organise and analyse re la ted

information, which they provide in sufficient quantitiesi n t e r p r e t a n d a n a l y s e c o h e r e n t l y t h e

interdependence among personal, local, national and global issues from different perspectivesevaluate various viewpoints and synthesise

their own opinions and suggestions on the basis of logical arguments and sufficient examplescommunicate ideas in a concise, logical, well-

balanced and systematic waysolicit and conceptualise evidence and show

respect for evidence, demonstrating open-

mindedness and tolerance towards a wide range of views and valuesshow initiative and self-management skills and

reflect comprehensively and systematically throughout the enquiry learning process

Norm-referenced assessment limits the number of candidates receiving a certain grade and above by a rough percentage consistent with previous years. Standards-referenced assessment claims to reward all candidates demonstrated some objective behaviours in examination without reference to statistics in previous years. Hence, expecting perfection in pedagogical techniques with time, it is anticipated that the percentage of pupils achieving level 1 through 5 should increase for the first few years until a plateau is reached. The number of candidates receiving Levels 5* and 5** description being “exceptionally” capable follows the number of Level 5 as they reflect the top 30% and 10% of Level 5 respectively, insignia designed for discrimination and selection of much treasured potentially high efficacy human resources.

It is hoped that pupils demonstrating high competence including language skills in Chinese and English Language, numeracy and logical thinking skills in Mathematics, and problem-formulating cum problem-solving skills on real life issues in Liberal Studies will make successful life-long learners. Candidates with 5* and 5** in all four compulsory subjects should be able to perform like instant experts to novice topics, given enough time and adequate access to information sources. During the training stage in school, the next pedagogical issue after questioning skills and problem-solving skills would be the selection of appropriate content that may bring forth the deep learning cognitive process of attaining such skills.

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What is Worth Learning in a Self-Directed and Life-Long Learning

Paradigm?

To accomplish the impossible mission in attempt to cover all real life issues, we would easily run into a scary lengthy list of material topics borrowed from various established disciplines and tacit cultural knowledge; the first cohort of teachers and pupils suffered a lot from over-teaching and over-learning. The dilemma leads us to the question “What is worth learning?” at the reality level. The keyword Sustainability readily connects us towards life-long education. Choice and priority shall be the keyword linking our mind with self-directed learning.

At the curriculum reengineering design level, Tse (2010a) asserted applying Chaos Theory, Complexity Theories and Dynamical Systems Theory to understand how new trades, new academic subjects or new research interests arise and go, and argued that design for new area of learning e.g. sustainable development in an information era, should inject new elements of skills in its curriculum, and has to be inter-disciplinary, embracing traditional understanding of conventional subject areas. The de novo NSS Liberal Studies curriculum in Hong Kong is one of the kinds. One corollary prediction along this line is that outlier subjects will get marginalized and be eventually forgotten or eliminated.

Problem solving skills vital to Liberal Studies are definitely useful for self-directed learning, valid life-long. “The use of science and technology [a thinking cycle of (1) observe intuitive connections, (2) narrow down the connections in a mind map, and (3) hypothesize – make guesses on causal relationships, and (4) experiment; then back to (1) observe results] to combat against public

health crisis” presented by Dr. LO Wing Lok8, the prestigious epidemics consultant in Hong Kong, is one example of such focus of training.

Tse (2010a) fur ther a rgued to inc lude complexity science elements (a series of superficially independent incidents may attenuate and demise or else, amplify through positive feedback mechanism and surprise the world with revolutionary change popularly known as butterfly effect) in life-long learning training. He further contended that change could never be explained completely without an introduction of time element into the chain of change episodes, highlighting the significance of Dynamical Systems Theory. This same line of thought could be applied to the construction of 3-Dimensional personalized knowledge network. The 2012 international dispute at World Trade Organization (WTO) platform on the global supply of rare-earth metal could verify this line of thought, picking up a topic worthy of learning for the new generation for very different causes from the beliefs of earlier generations.

The 2012 Rare-Earth Metal Global andInternationalConflictasExemplar

Recently, the term “rare-earth metal” appears frequently in international news featuring conflict between the major supplier cum exporter Chinese government and the buyer cum importers, European Union, Japanese and United States governments. What is Rare-earth Metal? As science students in 1970s, we did not encounter such term at all. Certainly, we should trace back to the Periodic Table that we studied in Inorganic Chemistry. Our Chemistry textbooks taught us about vertical Groups I, II, III, IV, V, and VII elements and limited our study to horizontal rows up to the third Period.

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Those elements are common to our daily life in those days, with an emphasis on survival and nutritional needs of mankind. Between Groups II and III lies an abundance of 10 by 4, columns by rows of elements collectively known as Transitional Elements. All we need to know in 1970s was that this group includes the very stable precious metals like Gold, Silver, Platinum as well as the most radioactive elements like Uranium etc., else too much for the examinations we were to sit. Now, rare-earth metal elements are the 15 elements clustered into the one cell to the right of Group II and Period 6 in the Periodic Table, plus one element each on the same column in Period 4 (Scandium Sc) and 5 (Yttrium Y). The inorganic chemistry aspect of knowing about rare-earth elements would not be of interest to layman in the community, why should 2012 pupils bother then?

“… rare-earth materials … are vital in the creation of a big variety of electronic technologies including lithium9 car batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, flat-screen television, compact fluorescent light bulbs, petroleum-to-gasoline catalytic cracking, and military defense components such as missile guidance systems.” 10 Maybe 2012 pupils should attend to the usage in the modern technological world aspect. Material scientists discovered marvelous application of rare-earth metals, a few of them make ultra-powerful compact super-magnets, super-magnets are vital component of compact, powerful electric motors, large and small, which in turn are vital for wind turbine generators, for driving electric cars, and for electronic equipments. The “metal” component of the Nickel-metal hydride battery that drives a Toyota Prius hybrid car is Lanthanum11 La of atomic number 57, first of the 15 main rare-earth metal group. International competition between auto manufacturing countries is keen for the next decade, and electric cars will be the key battle field. It touched on issues of globalized trade war and global technological competitions.

U.S. government along with Japan and European Union have launched legal sue at World Trade Organization against Chinese government on their reduced export of rare-earth elements in recent years (September 2009- August 2012)12. Chinese government fought back using statistical figures that Japan and American commodity markets speculators have stocked up an amount of rare-earth metals at low price in the past two years abundant for a few decades equivalents to their total consumption in the past decade13. Critics in United Kingdom observed “Rare-earth metals mine is key to US control over hi-tech future” 14. It is now a tacit political tug-of-war, knowing that the auto-market trend of the next decade is very different from the past decade15. Any room for white lies? This is intriguing, a good starting point for curious self-directed learner.

Why is China supplying over 95% of world import for rare-earth metal? Is it so difficult to access in the other four continents other than the land of China? Rare-earth elements are indeed not rare16 , they are extracted in Brazil, India, Australia, California, South Africa, Russia and Malaysia; and the closest mine to Hong Kong may be in Shaoguan of Guangdong. On 26th May 2012, a piece of news appeared in a Chinese newspaper, Sin Chew Daily of Malaysia17 that the Malaysian Chinese community was appealing to the Malaysian government to abolish the construction of a new Rare-earth Refinery by the Lynas Corporation of Australia18 at Kuantan, Malaysia. Why don’t Australians build their refinery in Australia? Malaysians learned a hard lesson that residues among the waste of rare-earth metal extraction could pose radioactive danger even after 30 years of disposal (Asia Rare-earth Enterprise, Bukit Merah, Malaysia in 1982)19. Extraction and mining of rare-earth elements pull on extended environmental pollution concern.

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Up to this point of discussion, we could infer about nominating rare-earth metal as a worthy of learning issue for 2012, not because of the traditional inorganic chemistry focus, but rather because of its multi-facet involvement in the modern world. The issue gets complex because of its potential application to modern technology, projected source of wealth attached to the soaring demand for the competitive international auto manufacturing industry, the harm of their radioactive residues from refinery, etc. It is multi-disciplinary, involving global politics, macroeconomics, analysis of statistical figures, sustainable development between environmental-friendly use of electric cars and renewable energy against long-term radioactive pollution in third world countries, and hence global equitable manufacture issues. How much should one individual pupil embrace any one issue like this? It is a personalized issue then, depending on how much one cares and involves in the spinning debates.

In the light of Dynamical Systems Theory (Tse, 2010b), the trajectory of interest development towards a social issue is autonomous in a world honouring freedom of speech and choice. A lingering

issue involving multiple stakeholders would not follow a deterministic trajectory (Figure 1) but rather each decision point is independent of its previous history (Figure 2) and stakeholders re-evaluate every time as if it is a new page, in multi-facet manner, pulling and pushing in different directions and strengths, which may end up weakening earlier push (as in case A of Figure 2), calling for accelerated intensity of progress (as in case B of Figure 2), hence putting the project to a halt could be one possibility, or even reversing the direction of movement (as in case C of Figure 2). Knowledge and emphasis once considered appropriate, fair and justified in one instance could be reverted in another instance, one evident incident being policy change in the transition from one government to a successive one whereas another example being discovery of new evidence leading to different rational deductions.

The reality is that social issues come and go like fads; outgoing fads and marginalized topics among social interests become disconnected outliers like the inorganic chemistry aspect of rare-earth metal. Value of keeping outlier information is slim when they become dead items in social communication arena.

Cha

nge

Para

met

er

time

Figure 1. Deterministic Growth Trajectory with Multiple Decision Points in a Non-Autonomous System (Tse,

2010b, p.127)

Figure 2. Open Decision Trajectory Considerations with Multiple Decision Points in an Autonomous

System (Tse, 2010b, p.128)

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TSE Pak Hoi, Isaac

To be knowledgeable in an information age, one is expected to have an individualized view enough to demonstrate a personal critical analysis and a personal choice just-in-time. A 3-Dimensional personal knowledge network scaffolds multiple connections in different perspectives, each connection highlights continuum of variances between extreme cases. Such 3-D architecture provides a robust framework for positioning new ideas onto the continuum between two nodes (information clusters) despite missing links. Even if one connection dies out, it is up to the network originator to utilize other connections to reconstruct a personal story re-created for some other future causes. Learned questioning helps clarify mysteries and build up confidence in consensual inferences. Interpretation of issue-based knowledge or client-centred total solution to a problem is contingent to that particular set of background concerns and contemporary interests. This would be consistent with the principle of contingent leadership explained in terms of Dynamical Systems Theory (Tse, 2006) as each new scenario is by itself a new set of variables deemed worthy of due attention in the eyes of the protagonist, or client, in the business world; rationale to the total solution supplied should be contingent to penchants of the client.

Conclusions

Education and Examination reforms in Hong Kong that took shape in the past decade has created a window of opportunities for a concern towards problem-solving capacity in future generations at school level, materialized by the implementation of NSS and HKDSE, the introduction of NSS Liberal Studies in particular.

Inculcating good questioning skills are logical agenda subsequent to literacy and reading habit, followed by acquisition of problem-identification and

problem-solving skills.

By demanding pupils to submit questions of their self-directed interest, we created a space for them to exercise one or more cognitive skills as applying, analyzing, evaluating, and hopefully creating once in a while. The primordial tool proposed here serves an easy guide for starter learners. More capable pupils and seasoned inquirers could be guided to make specific questions demanding the four higher level skills stipulated in the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy of cognitive knowledge on a wider case scenario that one issue may be developed into. That is exactly the issue-identification and problem development process in the Independent Enquiry Study for HKDSE Liberal Studies.

Skills-based learning approach needs vehicles of presentation, and traditional subject contents became restrained to the syllabus after many years of implementation. Training vehicles have to be sought from interdisciplinary interfaces or totally new areas. Knowledge networking is deemed a common basis for knowledge building in the coming decades. We could not dictate what is worth learning for the future, not to say what is worth learning in future. However, a self-directed learning history and a personal knowledge network that one keeps building, including individualized legends, well thought-through rationale, and rich stories of success, summarized as a life-long learning style, will present a better identity than one’s name in the knowledge society. This would require multiple perspectives of good retrospective questioning to reach a consolidated robust total solution.

To frontline practitioners, guiding pupils to build their own knowledge network and to help them revitalize established knowledge content in existing public examination syllabus to future integrated

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Inculcate Questioning Skills and Incubate Personal Knowledge Networking for Self-Directed and Life-Long Learning

knowledge network are meaningful yet challenging duties. To cognition researchers, the next step forward would be a creation of assessment instrument to measure how much more does a personal knowledge network instigate explosive understanding of one’s cognitive sphere, and hence to identify paths towards efficient cognitive development for the future.

Notes

Legislative Council Paper LC Paper No. 1. CB(2)296/02-03(01): Merger of the Education Commission and the Board of Education http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr02-03/english/panels/ed/papers/ed1028cb2-296-1e.pdfNewspaper reports on meeting of the Board of 2. Education, 13 Feb 1996 Tai Kung Po, Singtao Daily, or Wenweipo.Information drawn from http://ls.edb.hkedcity.3. net on 10 Aug 2012.New Senior Secondary Curriculum -- Liberal 4. Studies, Parents’ Handbook (Education Bureau, 2012) p.12 http://ls.edb.hkedcity.netThe HKDSE makes use of Standards-referenced 5. Reporting of assessments. Standards-referencing aims at reporting candidates’ results against a set of prescribed levels of achievement based on typical performance of candidates at those levels. For each of the levels, a set of descriptors has been developed that describes what the typical candidate performing at this level is able to do. Candidate’s results indicate the standards achieved in terms of knowledge and skills regardless of the performance of the other candidates taking the same examination. This reporting system also enables stakeholders to understand explicitly what the candidates know and can do when they have achieved a certain level of performance. [http://www.hkeaa.edu.hk/en/hkdse/] The rationale behind this change

from traditional norm-referenced assessment is explained in the following HKEAA web address [http://www.hkeaa.edu.hk/en/HKDSE/The_Reporting_System/SRR/]Performance standards for HKDSE Liberal 6. Studies could be read from the following HKEAA web address [http://www.hkeaa.edu.hk/dsels/en/standard-descriptors-performance.html]Source: http://www.hkeaa.edu.hk/dsels/en/7. standard-descriptors-performance.htmlSeminar presented to teachers of Liberal Studies 8. on 24 March 2012, illustrated with the step by step deduction of Dr. John Snow to cut-off water supply from an infested target hand pump on Broad Street, London, to stop further spreading of cholera death cases in England in the 19th century; and further verification with the combat of H5N1 avian flu virus infections by killing all living poultry in 1997 and 2003 SARS in Hong Kong. http://www.newgen.org.hk/activity_revise/activity_revise_teacher/44Lithium, the major component for modern 9. efficient batteries, belongs to Group I in the Periodic table. It is the secret stabilizer component that belongs to the rare-earth metal group.Bell , Larry, “China’s Rare-earth Metals 10. Monopoly Needn’t Put An Elec t ronics S t rang leho ld On Amer ica” Forbes , 14 May 2012 http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrybel l /2012/04/15/chinas-rare-ear th-metals-monopoly-neednt-put-an-electronics-stranglehold-on-america/4 Rare-earth Elements That Will Only Get More 11. Important - Popular Mechanics http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/engineering/news/important-rare-earth-elements#slide-1China: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare-earth 12. element

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TSE Pak Hoi, Isaac

Online Newspapers in Chinese 14 March 13. 2012 at Sina.com: http://finance.sina.com/bg/chinamkt/sinacn/20120314/0515477723.html Rare-earth metals mine is key to US control 14. over h i - tech fu ture . Guardian UK, 26 December 2010: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/dec/26/rare-earth-metals-usPatrick Dixon. “Future Of The Automotive 15. Industry (Auto Trends)”: http://www.globalchange.com/future-of-the-automotive-industry-auto-trends.htmhttp://www.theodoregray.com/periodictable/16. Elements/RareEarthMetals/index.s7.htmlSin Chew Daily, Malaysia 26 May 2012: http://17. www.sinchew.com.my/node/241412?tid=1http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/business/18. global/rare-earth-metal-refinery-nears-approval-in-malaysia.html?pagewanted=allhttp://series888.blogspot.com/2010/05/blog-19. post_5619.html in Chinese巫月圓: 追蹤毒廠 --抗毒血淚保家園. 馬來西亞 中國報 專題組 13 May 2010.

References

Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D. R. (eds.). (2001). A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York: Longman.

Bloom, B. S., Engelhart, M. D., Furst, E. J., Hill, W. H., & Krathwohl, D. R. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: the classification of educational goals; Handbook I: Cognitive Domain New York, Longmans.

Brown, G. & Wragg, E.C. (1993). Questioning. London : Routledge.

Callison, D. (2006). Questioning Revisited. School Library Media Activities Monthly (Feb 2006), 22(6): 40-43.

Dillon, J.T. (1988). The remedial status of student questions. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 20(3): 197-210.

Education Bureau. (2012). New Senior Secondary Curriculum – Liberal Studies, Parents’ Handbook. Hong Kong.

Education Commission. (1998). Review of Compulsory Education of Hong Kong.

Education Commission. (1999). Education Blueprint for the 21st Century: Review of Academic System – Aims of Education.

HKEAA. (2011). Grading Procedures and Standards-referenced Reporting in HKDSE Examination. Retrieved from http://www.hkeaa.edu.hk/DocLibrary/Media/Leaflets/HKDSE_SRR_A4_Booklet_Jun2011.pdf

HKEAA. (2012). Press Release: “2012 Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) Examination Results Released” (19 July 2012). Retrieved from http://www.hkeaa.edu.hk/DocLibrary/Media/PR/20120719_HKDSE_Results_ENG_FULL.pdf

Launer, J. (2002). The art of questioning. QJM 95(7) (Jul 2002): 489-490.

Millar, G.W. (1989). Developing student questioning skills : a handbook of tips and strategies for teachers. Scholastic Testing Service, Inc., Bensenville, Ill.

Tomm, K. (1988). Interventive interviewing: part III. Intending to ask lineal, circular, strategic or reflexive questions? Family Process, 1988; 27:1–15.

Tse, P.H.I. (2006). Contingent Leadership, a creative, eclectic but proactive paradigm. (Article written in Chinese). 謝伯開。（2006）。具創意、折衷而積極的權變領導論。泛珠三角區域中小學校長論壇，廣西南寧。Retrieved from http://www.plkylsc.edu.hk.

Tse, P.H.I . (2010a) . Which Curr iculum Design on Sustainable Development Education May Last? An easy demonstration on case application of Dynamical Systems Theory. New Horizon in Education, 58(1): 141-147 (article published in Chinese). 謝伯開。(2010)。動態或變系統理論的應用淺例：怎樣設計「可持續發展教育」課程才能持續生存？教育曙光，第58卷，第一期: 141-147.

Tse, P.H.I. (2010b). Order Behind Disorder in School Change: Dynamical Systems Theory and Process Structures. Germany: Lambert Academic Publishing.

Wilen, W.W. (2001). Exploring myths about teacher questioning in the social studies classroom The Social Studies; Jan/Feb 2001; 92, 1; pg. 26-32.

Wragg, E.C. & Brown, G. (2001). Questioning in the Secondary School. Routledge/Falmer.

AuthorDr. TSE Pak Hoi, Isaac Principal, Po Leung Kuk Yao Ling Sun College 謝伯開博士 香港保良局姚連生中學校長 [isaacphtse@gmail.com]

Funding source of the article: Self-financed

Received: 5.9.12, accepted 23.10.12, 6.5 weeks, revised 31.10.12, further revised 27.11.12

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Appendix 1

「共解疑難」2012年4-5月學生提交問題分類 (Y= 好 Good，X= 不好 Inappropriate)

X1 資料性、不是疑難 (包括前置資料錯誤) Informational, not an issue (cum concurred

with wrong information) 5B 螢光筆中的螢光液有什麼成分？

5A 鐵生鏽不能復原到鐵，那麼所有的鐵

生鏽，鐵是否永遠消失在地球上？

4E 天上的雷電是由甚麼物質組成 ？

X2 開放式議題、不是疑難 Open-ended questions -- for free discussion,

not an issue4A 香港在「創意產業」上會否容納2 次創作？

4A WTO 不是為了各國家之間得到公平貿易而

建立的平台，但為甚麽仍然被發達國家壟斷

這平台？而導致國與國之間貿易紛爭加劇、

及貧富懸殊問題更嚴重！

X3 議題過大、不是疑難 Too big a puzzled field, far from being an

issue3C 點樣可以用宇宙力量？

4D 為何人會盲目追求某些東西？

X4 未釐清定義、(包括視近似類詞作為提問主體) Unsettleddefinitions(shifteduseofsimulated

vocabulary that wobbles the focus)4E 顏料是如何製成的？

3A 地震帶遲早會移至香港；那麽香港人應如何

準備呢？

4C 為甚麽吃藥丸不會吐，但吃一板和藥丸差不

多的硬幣就會吐？

X5 是非意見式提問、答案不涉疑難 Yes-No questions -- closed answer, nothing

further to puzzle about5A 流行文化中的未來都市，例如飛車、投射影

像產品，是否根本不可能實際存在？

5C 香港應否徵收銷售稅？

5A 二次創作條例是否因為政府不滿創作人利用

二次創作諷刺或批評他們才建議立法？真正

目的不是保護知識產權！

3A 基因突變可以使人類改變成喪屍嗎？

5A 為甚麽7-11 及麥當勞要設立24小時服務？

這不會浪費電力嗎？這樣，「地球熄燈一小

時」活動又有意義嗎？不是都在呼籲人們要

節約用電嗎？

X6 沒有結果的「為甚麼」 Unproductive “Why?” queries3C 為甚麼比薩斜塔會是斜的？

5C 為甚麽很多孕婦生完小孩會 “走樣” ？5C 為甚麽有些燈的顏色能不是白色，而是其他

顏色？

5C 為何報紙會有風月版，不會影響報紙的形象

嗎？

5C 為甚麽有人會說人「短命相」？人的壽命與

外貌有冇關？

5B 人為甚麽有飢餓感？

3C 為何會有飽的感覺？

4C 為何頭髮會不停生長，但手毛脚毛生長到一

是長度會停止？

*******************************************

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TSE Pak Hoi, Isaac

Y1 有心思的疑難 Well-thought query3B 地底燃燒的煤礦是否可以完全燃燒殆盡？

3B 既然貧富懸殊的存在是必然的，那為甚麼還

要找方法去解決？

3B 校長你在禮堂貼上 “If you are born poor, it is not your mistake. If you die poor, it is.” 在貧

窮國家的孩子未長大已餓死了，又是不是他

們的錯呢？

5A 為甚麽有時人經過某些創傷後會忘記近期發

生的事，但不會忘記很久以前的事？

4E 為甚麼科學家十分關注海洋垃圾的去向？

5E 為甚麽高壓電纜的電壓高達40000V 但電流

卻很少？

4B 為甚麽我們要做「共解疑難」？

5A 既然黑色、暗啞的物料比反光的物料更吸

熱，為何市面上仍有大批黑色車輛？

4D 為甚麽玻璃是分類時作為岩石圈，但他又是

透明的？

4A 如果升降機突然斷缆向下高速下跌，人會否

向上飛高？

4A 為甚麽火不受重力影響而向下，反而向上

升？另外，為甚麽火在無重狀態是球體的？ 3B 中醫的醫病方針是固本培元，那麽中药會否

有副作用？如有，其副作用又會否

3A 為甚麽輕小說和網絡小說總是得不到文學界

的重視呢？

4C 怎樣可以有效控制自己的睡眠時間，改善貪

睡？

4C 金融風暴時，損失的金錢去哪？

4C 學校致力著重可持續發展的原因是何呢？

4B 若上帝粒子被證實/發現，是否證明上帝存

在？那麽，是上帝創造了這粒子，還是這粒

子的特性令宇宙誕生？

3A 是我們先有眼睛，再去創造物件出來欣賞的

嗎？

Y2 有進一步研究潛力的疑難 Query that has rich potential for further

explorations3B 果實摘了出來後，為甚麼還會成熟？

3B 物體通過反射光線入眼睛，刺激視覺神經，

在視覺中樞形成圖象。而光線是電磁波，電

流能刺激細胞，那能否利用機器直接通過發

出不同大小、頻率的電流和電磁波來刺激視

覺神經，直接形成圖象而不需經眼睛觀看？ 5B 鹽巴在水中一定會溶，為甚麼在丙酮則不

會？

3A 可以把太陽能板設計為「向光性」嗎？

5A 有人建議將垃圾焚化爐建在岩洞中，以此減

輕對地面的影響，此法可行嗎？

5A 為甚麽用手指輕輕刮一下頭髮就會輕易變

形？

4D 為何核輻射廢料放在A地方的地下裏、不但

會影响A地方，還會擴大？要如何才適當處

理核輻射廢料？

4D 人權會隨時代改變，那麽於帝制下的暴君時

代，人到底是沒有享受到人權還是當時的人

權只有這樣多？

5C 「夜光」物體的發光原理是甚麼？為甚麽香

港晚上的閙市不利用「夜光」燈照明？還不

是可以省電嗎？

5C 用肺呼吸的鯨魚為甚麽可在水中維持呼吸這

麽久？

4A 點解樹唔可以長到1000米，甚至10000米？

3B 次聲波會令人腦產生不同的情緒，是否可以

將這種效果應用在電影院內，令觀眾產生一

種身臨其境的感覺呢？

3B 中醫的醫病方針是固本培元，那麽中药會否

有副作用？如有，其副作用又會否比西藥的

副作用大？

3B 氣壓有靜止的一天？

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Inculcate Questioning Skills and Incubate Personal Knowledge Networking for Self-Directed and Life-Long Learning

3B 閃電釋放出大量能量，例如：光能，那麼那

些能量轉換成甚麼「消失」了？

3B 物質的萬有引力永不消失，那能在宇宙的星

体周圍的軌道上利用物体的質量差產生的速

度差來發電？

4B 核聚變是不氘和氚結合，現今尚未成功 (只能維持數秒) 。是不是不夠氘、氚在一起？

若把大量氘、氚放在一起，能否把時間延

長？

3A 戴兩個口罩會否提升效果？

3A 為甚麽在越嚴肅的場合愈想笑？

5A 高翼飛機與低翼飛機的分別是什麽？二者有

何優點與缺點？

4C 人類有沒有可能到達月球的陰暗面？

4C 化石燃料可能靠人類製造出來嗎？

4B 氫能發電，酒精發電和沼氣發電，那一種可

能性較高？哪個安全性高呢？哪個較適合在

香港上發展呢？

4B 以氫氧作推動汽車的燃料，能解决到空氣問

題；但以現時的汽車石油引擎來改良作氫氧

的引擎，會有什麼困難？