How Questions Can Transform Student-Centered Learning 

Professor Karen Brennan sees classrooms as magical spaces when we begin with curiosity, not just content.

“When I think about design process, from the initial moments of young people working on projects, all the way to the end where they've gone through the highs, the lows, the emotional vicissitudes of bringing their ideas into the world, the messy middle through to the end, there is a role for questions in every moment,” she says. “Start with Questions, for me, is really about an attitude of leading with student interests.” 

Drawing on a yearlong study of 25 teachers across elementary, middle, and high school classrooms, Brennan describes how powerful learning begins by asking genuine questions or really questions teachers don’t already know the answers to. She is the co-author of Start with Questions: The Classroom as Design Studio, which explores what happens when educators take students’ ideas seriously. 

Rather than treating questions as a closing ritual at the end of a lesson, Brennan argues for an orientation shift: Start with what learners are thinking about, what they care about, and what feels hard or exciting to them. Grounded in traditions of progressive education, this approach does not reject content knowledge. Instead, it reframes the role of teachers as expert guides, offering domain expertise, metacognitive scaffolding, affirmation, and structure within a classroom culture that values intellectual humility.

Brennan comes to the classroom from a design studio background, a space that embraces tinkering and where self-directed learning happens in community. In studio-based environments, students pursue projects that matter to them while learning alongside peers and with the support of teachers. Self-direction, she explains, is not script less chaos but more structured, scaffolded, and deeply relational.

That mindset also shapes her optimism about artificial intelligence. Brennan argues that AI is not about offloading thinking, but about expanding what learners can imagine and build. “I feel like we don’t give learners enough credit,” she says. “When there’s all this handwringing around AI stealing assignments, maybe we were asking students to do things that weren’t that important to begin with. If AI can do it, maybe we need to be looking for new opportunities for interestingness for learners.

In this episode of the Harvard EdCast, Brennan shifts traditional approaches toward a powerful idea: how classrooms become transformative when we make space for students’ questions and trust their capacity to pursue them. 

Transcript

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JILL ANDERSON: I'm Jill Anderson. This is the Harvard EdCast.  

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Karen Brennan often asks, what if classrooms were places where students' curiosity and ideas shaped their learning. She's a Harvard professor who explores how learning can be more student-centered, creative, and frankly more meaningful. She spent a year studying 25 teachers in elementary, middle, and high school classrooms across the United States to understand teaching that centers students' ideas for what and how they learn. It turns out, one of the most powerful ways to engage learners is by starting with questions.  

I wanted to explore more about self-directed learning and what classrooms can learn from studio-based approaches. First, I asked Karen how starting with questions can change what powerful learning looks like in practice.  

KAREN BRENNAN: So much of my work is connected to thinking about progressive education. And when I think about progressive education, the heart and soul of that for me is taking learners and their ideas seriously. And how else do you take learners and their ideas seriously, if not by asking them what they're thinking about? And so, in my work, and in my teaching as well, what has been such a refrain when I'm in classrooms, when I'm talking to teachers, when I'm seeing them do this work in all sorts of environments, it truly always starts with questions. What are you thinking about? What are you curious about? What's hard for you? What are you most loving? All of these questions really set us up for a powerful pedagogy of centering learners and their ideas.  

JILL ANDERSON: Do you think that we have gotten away from that approach in education, because it seems so obvious that questions would drive learning?  

KAREN BRENNAN: It's an interesting question. Have we gotten away from it? Have we ever really done it? Something that's especially hard with K-12 education, but I think also applies to college-level education as well, there can sometimes be a fetishizing of content. There are topics, themes, ideas that need to be communicated to learners. And we can't do that and take learners and their ideas seriously.  

And so, there's some in built intention that has lingered with us for a long time in educational spaces, that we care about multiple things. And sometimes we get away from really starting with learners and their ideas. The powerful ideas of content, of domains, of disciplines doesn't have to be intention, doesn't have to contradict, also caring deeply about young people and their ideas.  

JILL ANDERSON: When you talk about this idea of starting with questions, what does that look like in a classroom?  

KAREN BRENNAN: What that looks like in the classroom is just making sure that you are always making space for it. It's always the right time for questions. When I think about design process, from the initial moments of young people working on projects, all the way to the end where they've gone through the highs, the lows, the emotional vicissitudes of bringing their ideas into the world, the messy middle through to the end, there is a role for questions in every moment.  

Start with questions, for me, is really about an attitude of leading with student interests. Literally, the first thing out of your mouth doesn't need to be a question per se, but I think it's about an orientation to classroom practice. I certainly hold dearly in my own teaching and, in consequence, in my research of saying, like, hey, what is it that I do not understand about the current situation.  

So, I think it's maybe a commitment to intellectual humility. So, let's start with what we don't know. What could I know more about? What do my learners care about? What's important to them? What do they need? How can I best support them?  

JILL ANDERSON: Yeah, as you're talking, I keep thinking about how it's probably most common for questions to be asked at the end of maybe a lesson. You get through the whole model or the whole lesson plan, and then you might ask if there's any questions. I mean, you see that beyond a classroom. You see that during presentations. Like, the questions usually are asked at the end. So, I'm wondering, how is what you're talking about different from maybe what we see when you start with content? Or you just dive right into instruction?

KAREN BRENNAN: I love you mentioning the thing about when questions happen at the end. I mean, we've all been at these events where it's like, I have a question, but really, it's a comment. And what that made me think about was that so often in learning spaces we find ourselves as educators asking questions that we already know the answers to. And that is not the foundation of a powerful learning experience for young people.  

In my research, I've been so excited about the context in which teachers are working with young people and are asking genuine questions, questions that they don't know the answer to. And so, for me, the nature of the question, it isn't just about when it happens, but certainly all the questions shouldn't come at the end. It's like powerful, sincere, meaningful questions.  

JILL ANDERSON: You've been looking at educators who have successfully been able to implement this. I mean, you have a whole list of questions that can kick this off. Could you share maybe one of those questions and what happened, or what you noticed in your work?  

KAREN BRENNAN: One of my favorite questions is, what are you interested in? It's just such a simple question, but so often we don't have the time or space to even ask it. We have curriculum standards. We've got syllabi. We're always rushing on to the next thing. We're preparing for standardized tests.  

But to really begin from a place of what are you interested in, no matter what your environment you're in, no matter how constrained it is, no matter how much freedom you have as an educator, there is always time and space for this very fundamental question of what are you interested in. And every single human being, no matter their age, no matter their experience and expertise, will have some response to that question. And from there, you can dream and do anything. 

JILL ANDERSON: I want to shift a little bit to the idea of studio-based learning environments, which I know is something that you have a lot of experience in. And first, I just want to define what that may be for folks who don't know what it is, and how we can borrow from that studio way of learning?  

KAREN BRENNAN: What are we talking about when we talk about studio learning? So, this very much draws on architecture tradition. And what I love about the metaphor of the classroom as design studio is what it invites us into. And what are people doing and how we're doing it?  

So, when I think about a studio environment, you can imagine, hopefully, people working on projects that matter to them in ways that are self-directed and are reflective, but they're also surrounded by people who are working on things that matter to them. And people are peeking into each other's work. They're sharing ideas. It's also very much about honoring the expertise and support offered by educators.  

So sometimes there's this idea of when people hear self-directed learning, they're imagining people in bubbles, on their own. But it really is this combination of self-direction and community that I think is so beautifully exemplified by studio approach. That's what I experienced myself as a graduate student at MIT. It's what I've tried to foster in my own classes at HGSE.  

It's what I so admire about teachers out in the world who are trying to create these learning experiences. But it really is this relationship of each person has something that they care about that they're working on, but it's really also deeply connected to everyone else in the room. So self-direction in community is what I think of as the heart of a studio model.  

JILL ANDERSON: Obviously, the idea of self-directed learning can be scary, I think, when people hear that term. At least in the education system, because what it is maybe is misunderstood. So, I love this idea that questions can help students take more ownership. But I wanted to ask you about defining self-directed learning in that context and the role teachers play in guiding it.  

KAREN BRENNAN: Self-directed learning as a construct has had a long history with competing definitions and contested terrain. Where I've been really excited about it as a construct is just recognizing that every person has ideas. They can help shape their learning in important ways. Not everything has to be done for you as a learner. You have ideas and you have ways of bringing it into being.  

Where sometimes people can get nervous — even me as a teacher, I have been nervous at various points in my career. Sort of misconceptions around self-directed learning — one is, is it wholly individual? No, actually it can happen in community. And it's actually best supported in community and by teachers.  

I think the other big misconception is that it means there's no support and structure, which couldn't be further from the truth. And so I think so much of self-directed learning is about getting to know yourself as a learner — what's important to you, where you are presently, where you want to be, and then how you marshal resources to help you move on to the next step, and the next step, and the next step. 

JILL ANDERSON: How can a teacher guide that process in their classroom?  

KAREN BRENNAN: Well, that's where I think teacher domain expertise is so incredibly important. So, there is an incredibly important role for content knowledge. Teachers also bring incredibly important metacognitive skills. I think, especially for young learners, you can't know what you don't know. This is true of anyone at any age. But a lot of it is helping illuminate potential pathways.  

Oh, what are you working on? What do you care about? Let me show you models of what other people have done. Oh, you don't know anything about this discipline? Here's a book that I can connect you to. So, I think it's about offering help through material resources, through domain knowledge, through metacognitive scaffolding.  

I also think there's an important role for affirmation and the noble pep talk. I mean, self-directed learning, as you noted, is intimidating. It can be a little scary. And so, I do think there's an enormous affective function that teachers, facilitators, educators play in these contexts that can't be underestimated. It's scary for everyone a little bit. It's much easier to follow a script, and this is often scripless.  

JILL ANDERSON: Yeah, I was thinking that has to be a little bit scary for an educator to maybe go off script or do something differently. Or, have you encountered a lot of educators who have articulated a little bit about what that is like to pivot from, maybe-- I don't know if traditional is the right word-- but that traditional approach to pedagogy versus maybe using something a little bit more that leans into this idea of asking questions and letting a learner guide themselves in some way?  

KAREN BRENNAN: Over the past n years, having had the opportunity to work with lots and lots of teachers and lots and lots of different environments, you have some teachers who really embrace a start-with-questions approach in their teaching, and they're in a broader school or a broader system, district, that understands that approach and supports it. Other teachers are in places where maybe it's less familiar to colleagues.  

And so, I really appreciate the ways in which these teachers engage as reflective practitioners to understand, OK, what am I doing in my classroom. What does that then mean for the learners that I'm working with who are then going into their next class period and are maybe experiencing something very, very different? And so, I think so many of the conversations I have had with teachers are about these complexities, about their own sort of excitement and anxiety around supporting self-directed learning, what they need in order to be able to support it, and then what that support then in turn looks like for learners. But there's just something incredibly gratifying and powerful when you see that magic.  

JILL ANDERSON: Right.  

KAREN BRENNAN: With a young person, seeing like, oh my goodness, these are my ideas, and I'm bringing them into the world, and I've been able to do it. That's so cool. That's so exciting.  

JILL ANDERSON: Have you found that there are certain subjects or domains where it's easier to go in with this type of approach, versus another? 

KAREN BRENNAN: Well, the first thing that came to mind was actually from my own experience. So, when I was a pre-service teacher, I taught both math and computer science. And so, math just has so much cultural baggage about being kind of miserable, which is tragic. As a math major, that breaks my heart.  

And so, I would have students in the math class who then I would also have in my computer science class. They were different human beings. And so, there was just something about the cultural perceptions of these two disciplines and what was possible. And even though many of the same pedagogical strategies were being used, we were bringing broader cultural things into the space. So that's one example.  

But I think fundamentally, this core idea of starting with questions really can be used anywhere. Content is important in every learning environment, but learners' ideas are equally important in every learning environment. And so how do we create more space for that? There's no subject, there's no domain where I'd be like, you can't do that here.  

JILL ANDERSON: How do you recommend or what strategies can educators use to start trying out some of these new ways of approaching their classroom?  

KAREN BRENNAN: I'm a big believer in tinkering. So, while it's exciting to encounter a new pedagogy or a new way of doing things and you have this impulse, you're like, oh, I want to go all in, I want to overhaul everything, not everything has to be revolution. Evolution is also totally fine.  

So, I often recommend that teachers tinker with what they're doing. Try introducing a small strategy. Maybe you go to a beloved activity, exercise assignment. Find ways of adding new ways of bringing student perspective in, foregrounding student interests. Like, Rome wasn't built in a day.  

JILL ANDERSON: Right.  

KAREN BRENNAN: I think there are lots of ways of being incremental and building the changes over time.  

JILL ANDERSON: AI is on everyone's minds, and it's making its way. It's in a lot of classrooms already. So, I'm curious your thoughts about how AI may be able to be a tool for this model of educating kids, whether it's starting with questions, whether it's more self-directed learning. What are your thoughts on that?  

KAREN BRENNAN: So, I believe deeply in learning through creating. And so, anything that makes it easier to get the ideas in your head out into the world is incredibly lovely. And so, I've been really, really excited about generative AI and its ability to help learners of all ages do that exact thing. I have an idea. Things I could never, ever have built previously — suddenly within the realm of possibility for me. So, I'm just profoundly excited about that.  

Obviously, there's lots to be concerned about — environmental impacts, ownership and authorship of content, cognitive offloading. But I think, as is often the case, I feel like we don't give learners enough credit. When there's all this handwringing around, AI is stealing all of these assignments from me.  

I'm like, maybe we were asking students to do things that weren't that important to begin with. If AI can do it, maybe we need to be looking for new opportunities for interestingness for learners. But in general, I'm really excited. I'm really excited about, as a computer science educator, the way that it's democratizing the production of digital artifacts in ways that are so exciting, including for our own students at HGSE, which has been really fun to see.  

Things that even three years ago, they would not have been able to produce in half an hour. In 60 minutes, they're able to, hey, this is my idea. What do you think of it? You can bring it out into the world for other people to look at and inspect and have a conversation about. So, I'm excited about it.  

Lots of things to be concerned about with AI, certainly. And I think that's part of what we need to prepare all learners to be able to think about and make good decisions for themselves, and to think about how to be advocates in the world in what they care about and what they want the world to be in relation to AI. But overall, I'm very optimistic.  

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JILL ANDERSON: Karen Brennan is a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is the co-author of Starting with Questions: The Classroom as Design Studio. I'm Jill Anderson. This is the Harvard EdCast, produced by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Thanks for listening.  

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