Using Questions to Encourage Emergent Learning

Any preschool teacher will tell you: Young children ask a lot of questions. There’s even data to back it up. A 2007 study found that preschool students, when interacting with caregivers in an engaging setting, ask an average of 76 questions per hour! Asking questions is important work for preschool students. Not only do questions help develop skills (social and emotional, language, and cognitive), but also they are the primary way children make sense of the world around them. The way educators respond to a child’s curiosity can either encourage a spirit of inquiry or inadvertently constrict it.

If we understand the importance behind children’s questions, why do we so often use curriculum guides that aren’t based on the kinds of questions children are asking? The question we should be asking ourselves is this: How can we provide a child-led learning environment while also ensuring a robust educational experience that meets state standards?

Enter emergent curriculum. The pedagogy of emergent curriculum is grounded in the idea that when we use the children’s questions to guide their learning experiences, we honor the children’s intrinsic motivation and teach them that curiosity is a meaningful way to explore their world. We often find, too, that when children are engrossed in their learning, the daily classroom routines tend to run more smoothly, and the classroom feels more alive than scripted.

Teacher as Researcher

Emergent curriculum relies heavily on the concept of teacher as researcher. This means that as the children play, we must remain conscious of giving them the space to explore and to ask questions independent of adult input, and we must notice and record what questions are being asked. It’s these observations that will determine the more intentional learning experiences the teachers will introduce next.

For example, if the children have stopped to ask questions about a busy anthill, it’s important for us to recognize the significance of their curiosity and to allow the children the space to explore the anthill. As we observe the children’s exploration, we make notes of the questions being asked. Are there any repeat questions? What do they already know about ants? This is also the perfect time to take some photos and videos to revisit later when it comes time to create intentional learning activities around their budding interests.

Creating Learning Opportunities

In an emergent curriculum, educators use a practice called seeding to organically plant intentional learning opportunities into these moments of discovery. Seeding can be in the form of supplying additional learning tools or asking questions that scaffold on the children’s learning. For example, if the children are interested in the ants’ behavior, offer them a bug container and magnifying glass. If they’re interested in how many anthills they can find, offer them a notepad and pencil for tallying. If they want to try to dig their own anthill, provide a hand trowel and help them identify a safe place to dig. If two children are counting ants, you might offer prompts or questions that scaffold on math skills: “Oh, you found seven ants and Rosie found four more. I wonder how many ants we have all together.”

The children’s questions and emerging interests can also be reflected in the next day’s activities. For example, after an afternoon of ant exploration, the children might arrive the following morning to find an invitation to build anthills with kinetic sand and toy ants. During morning circle, you might introduce a book about ants and a short discussion as you follow the children’s lead.

I like to joke that emergent curriculum is easier done than said. As we often tell the children, the only way to learn how to do a new thing is by trying, so here are three simple steps for you to try in your own classroom.

3 Steps to Try Tomorrow

1. Take 10 uninterrupted minutes to watch the children play outside, and observe what sparks their curiosity. It could be something concrete, like feathers, insects, and mud, or something more abstract, like a recurring theme in their play—maybe they are exploring superpowers or building cities in the sandbox. You could even take some notes, jot down some quotes, and snap some photos if you’re feeling ambitious.

2. Use a “discovery bag” to deepen students’ exploration. The discovery bag is a small tote filled with tools to help the children deepen their exploration: rulers, measuring tape, bug containers, string, small field guides, hand trowels, tally counters, pencils, notepads, binoculars, magnifying glasses, anything they can use to follow their curiosity.

The discovery bag helps us respond to spontaneous questions and observations. When a child asks a question—like “What kind of bug is this?” or “How deep is the puddle?”—we don’t have to answer with words alone. We can hand them a magnifying glass or a ruler and let them investigate. We become guides rather than explainers, and they become scientists, researchers, and explorers.

3. Try using the information you gathered from your observations to create a tabletop activity that further extends the children’s learning inside the classroom. This is where more teacher-led, domain-specific activities can be introduced that still honor the interests of the children. If the children showed an interest in autumn leaves the day before, create a quick leaf-matching game or color-sorting activity.