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Wholebeing for Educators · Student sheet

Looking beneath the first answer

The skill of sense-making  ·  name: ______________  ·  date: ________

The first explanation for a confusing event can feel convincing because it arrives quickly. Inquiry asks us to slow down, notice our assumptions and look from more than one position. This can help us understand people and situations more fairly, while accepting that some uncertainty may remain.

What we are practising

By the end of this lesson, you can generate deeper questions about a complex situation and distinguish a first explanation from a fuller understanding.

During the activity

The root-question tree: notes, noticings, or nothing at all. This sheet is yours.

Take it with you

In what kind of situation, online or in everyday life, would one root question be most worth asking when something seems confusing or too quickly explained?

Recipes for Wellbeing · CC BY-NC 4.0 · free for classroom use  ·  rfweducators.netlify.app/lessons/inquiry/

Exit ticket · Looking beneath the first answer

What does the lesson mean by inquiry?

a) Waiting for someone else to explain what happened
b) Choosing to understand something confusing properly instead of grabbing the first explanation
c) Deciding immediately who is to blame in a situation
d) Only asking questions you already know the answer to

I can generate deeper questions about a confusing or complex situation and sort surface-level ideas from possible root causes to build a fuller understanding.
□ more than before   □ about the same

In what kind of situation, online or in everyday life, would one root question be most worth asking when something seems confusing or too quickly explained?

Exit ticket · Looking beneath the first answer

What does the lesson mean by inquiry?

a) Waiting for someone else to explain what happened
b) Choosing to understand something confusing properly instead of grabbing the first explanation
c) Deciding immediately who is to blame in a situation
d) Only asking questions you already know the answer to

I can generate deeper questions about a confusing or complex situation and sort surface-level ideas from possible root causes to build a fuller understanding.
□ more than before   □ about the same

In what kind of situation, online or in everyday life, would one root question be most worth asking when something seems confusing or too quickly explained?

Exit ticket · Looking beneath the first answer

What does the lesson mean by inquiry?

a) Waiting for someone else to explain what happened
b) Choosing to understand something confusing properly instead of grabbing the first explanation
c) Deciding immediately who is to blame in a situation
d) Only asking questions you already know the answer to

I can generate deeper questions about a confusing or complex situation and sort surface-level ideas from possible root causes to build a fuller understanding.
□ more than before   □ about the same

In what kind of situation, online or in everyday life, would one root question be most worth asking when something seems confusing or too quickly explained?

Exit ticket · Looking beneath the first answer

What does the lesson mean by inquiry?

a) Waiting for someone else to explain what happened
b) Choosing to understand something confusing properly instead of grabbing the first explanation
c) Deciding immediately who is to blame in a situation
d) Only asking questions you already know the answer to

I can generate deeper questions about a confusing or complex situation and sort surface-level ideas from possible root causes to build a fuller understanding.
□ more than before   □ about the same

In what kind of situation, online or in everyday life, would one root question be most worth asking when something seems confusing or too quickly explained?