Question driven efforts

I believe that question-driven efforts are more positive and substantial than content-driven efforts. I believe that when people work together with a focus on a meaningful question, those efforts are better.

What's important with regard to question-driven effort is that the question is explicit--people all know the central question of the effort, and all people agree that the question is integral to the work.

At our grade-level, I'd say that the collegial question that the grade-level educators are invested in is how can we develop and promote the best possible fifth grade program for students. That's a question we continually work on as we plan and review the program. In thinking about other efforts that I'm involved in school and elsewhere, the overriding questions that lead our work are not as explicit which makes me realize that as I work with multiple teams, it's important to ask, "What is our central question here?'

I believe that question-driven efforts are more powerful than content-driven efforts. This is something I want to think more about as I continue to develop my work in school and out of school.