THINKER'S ALMANAC - December 30

Kipling cited “six honest serving men [who] taught [him] all he knew.” Who were these six men?

Subject:  Questions - Kipling’s Six Honest Serving Men

Event:  Birthday of British writer Rudyard Kipling, 1865

 

A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy? -Albert Einstein

Today is the birthday of Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), England’s master storyteller and poet.  Kipling was British, but he lived for many years in India where he was born.  Known especially for his short stories and his popular work of fiction The Jungle Book (1894), Kipling was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907 when he was just 42 years old.  He was the first English language writer to win the prize, and he was also the youngest ever to win the prize.

                                                                Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay 

In a poem that accompanied one of his stories -- “The Elephant’s Child” -- Kipling includes a poem that personifies the six key interrogative pronouns, the words we use to begin questions:

I keep six honest serving-men

(They taught me all I knew);

Their names are What and Why and When

And How and Where and Who. (1)

Making Kipling’s “six honest serving-men” a part of your learning team is one of the best metacognitive strategies there is.  Metacognition is the ability to critically analyze and monitor your own thinking, and one excellent way to do this is to ask questions as you read or listen to a lecture.

In a 1991 study, ninth grade students listened to a lecture.  A quarter of the students reviewed their notes on the lecture by themselves.  Another quarter of the students discussed the content of the lectures in small groups.  The final two quarters of students were taught self-questioning strategies, and then were asked to generate and answer questions individually during and after the lecture, or they were asked to generate and answer questions and then discuss their questions and answers with a small group.   All subjects in the study were tested immediately after the lecture and then tested again ten days later. 

Based on the study’s results, the students who employed self questioning as a part of their study scored significantly higher than students who merely reviewed notes or discussed the contents of the lecture (2).

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What are the six interrogative pronouns?

Challenge:  Six Starts for Self-Questioning:  Do some research on strategies for self-questioning.  Then, write a short public service announcement aimed at students, explaining what self-questioning is, how it can be done, and why it is an effective method of learning.

Sources: 

1-Poetry Foundation.  “Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936).

2-King, Alison. “Improving lecture comprehension: Effects of a metacognitive strategy.” Applied Cognitive Psychology July/August 1991, Volume 5, Issue 4.