Door-2-Math Blog

Answering your child’s question. Sounds simple. You just have to know the answer. Right? Well that depends on what your child is really asking… One of the most important aspects of teaching math the Zen Way is answering questions.

There are three ways of answering a student’s question. You can answer the question based on what you think the child is asking. That’s the first level. You can answer the question based on what the child is actually asking. That’s the second level. Finally, you can answer the question based on what the child is not asking. That’s the third level.

Let’s have some examples to clarify this. The other day, my daughter saw a large bumblebee flying near to where she was playing in the front yard. So, with a trembling voice, she asked – Mommy, is the bumblebee going to bite me? The first level answer might be something like this: “Well, the bumblebee belongs to this family, it lives in this geographic region, the hive has this many members, etc. etc.” You give this answer because you think that the child wants to learn more about bumblebees. The second level answer is “If you’re not careful and anger the bumblebee, it might bite you.” You just answered the child’s question, period. The third level answer is “You’re scared that the bumblebee might bite you!” You read the child’s emotions and the context of the situation to come up with a third level answer.

Here’s a second example. I had a student that was looking at difficult percentage problem and asked me “How do you do this?” The first level answer to this question might be something like: “Well, Johnny, percentages are very important. You need to learn them so you can calculate interest rates so that you can buy a house and a car.” etc., etc.. You’re trying to convince Johnny that he should really learn this. A second level answer is “Well, here’s how you do it. First you take this number, divide it by this number multiply it by 100 and add a percentage sign.” etc., etc.. In this case you walk the student through the mechanics of solving the problem. The third and most powerful type of answer is the level three. In this case you say something like: “You must be confused on how to calculate percentages. Lets try to figure out which aspect is causing you problems.” In this case you hear what the child is not asking, in that percentages are still a mystery. He knows its important and if you just walk through the mechanics of the problem like he is asking you to, he’ll be no better off the next time around. This is why the level three answers are so powerful. This is where learning takes place. By going beyond what the child is asking and getting to the source of confusion, you’re removing the learning blocks and contributing to fundamental understanding rather than memorization of how to solve problems.

So, what are some tricks to learning how to get in the habit of responding in the third level? The first and foremost aspect is that you have to take yourself out. That is really concentrate on the child and not what you feel about percentages or fractions. This will get you past the first level answer. The second aspect is to look for non-verbal cues. What is the expression on the child’s face? What is the previous history with this type of problem? What kinds of questions does the child ask on other topics that he’s confused on? With practice, based on these and other inputs you have added the art of answering a question to your arsenal of teaching tools based on the Zen Way. So when a child asks a question, before you rush to the answer, think what really is the question.

(c) Feenix Pan, 2007. All rights reserved.