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Drawing on Project Information Literacy research, it highlights graduates who feel unprepared to generate their own questions. The essay uses the Covid-19 pandemic as a case where society faced deadly uncertainty amid misinformation and divided responses, underscoring the need for comfort with what cannot be known. It critiques thesis-driven “research paper” pedagogy that can push students to seek answers in sources rather than explore genuine unknowns.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/principled-uncertainty-why-learning-to-ask-good-questions-matters-more-than-finding-answers/586722/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/principled-uncertainty-why-learning-to-ask-good-questions-matters-more-than-finding-answers/586722.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Angel","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-11","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":39},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What problem does the essay identify in how students are introduced to research?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"It argues that current instruction does not encourage ethical, open-ended curiosity, leaving many students unsure how to pose their own questions.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"Why does the essay use the Covid-19 pandemic as an example?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"It shows how, early on, even experts lacked clear answers about how the virus spread and what to do, while anxiety grew through misinformation and information overload.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How does typical “research paper” pedagogy affect students’ curiosity?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Because authority in sources is treated as paramount and plagiarism-avoidance is emphasized, students may retreat from original questions that cannot be clearly answered in the materials they find.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},586722,1792605854,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":39,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},687207412472,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_155a257f0dc6eb9ab79c44ca47cae57d","Project Information Literacy  \nProvocation Series  \nPrincipled Uncertainty: Why Learning to Ask Good Questions Matters More than Finding Answers  \nThe way we introduce college students to research fails to encourage the ethical practice of open-ended curiosity so desperately needed intoday ’s complex information environment.  \nC U LT U R E  \nBY BARBARA FISTER  \nFEBRUARY 16, 2022  \nDrawing from a decade of Project Information Literacy’s rigorous research studies, one surprising ³nding is especially concerning: A large majority of recent graduates from top U.S. universities and colleges reported that they felt that college failed to prepare them to ask questions of their own. Clearly, something important is missing.  \nPhoto by Evan Dennis on Unsplash  \n[https://projectinfolit.org/pubs/provocation-series/essays/principled-uncertainty.html](https://projectinfolit.org/pubs/provocation-series/essays/principled-uncertainty.html) 1/13  \n2/16/22, 2:30 PM Principled Uncertainty: Why Learning to Ask Good Questions Matters More than Finding Answers | PIL Provocation Series  \nWhat will it take for students to develop the creativity and con³dent curiosity needed to pose questions in a world that doesn’t always have ready-made and clear-cut answers, especially as opportunists rush to ´ood spaces of uncertainty with torrents of misinformation and ill-informed conjecture?  \nThe past two years have provided a dramatic illustration of why this learning gap matters more than ever. As the Covid-19 pandemic began to spread across the globe, people turned for guidance to familiar information systems—news organizations, public oµcials, and the search and sharing platforms that have become invisibly embedded in our everyday lives. But in those early weeks as a frightening novel virus ´ooded the news, nobody—not even experienced public health oµcials or expert virologists—knew how it spread, what its long-term clinical e²ects would be, or what we should do to stay safe and well.  \nWe collectively faced a deadly threat, exacerbated by a worrying lack of solid information. The public tuned into daily news conferencesand doomscrolled their Covid-cluttered newsfeeds, hungry for the latest advice. Deep anxiety was fed by an overload of information, a politically divided response to the emergency, and inaccurate facts and ³gures from usually trustworthy sources. Almost two years later, as a new variant drives up case numbers, we face new sets of unanswered questions: Will a booster shot keep me safe? Will Omicron overwhelm hospitals? Will life ever return to normal?  \nWhile such high levels of anxious uncertainty are rarely experienced by entire populations simultaneously, this moment highlights a critical need: Coping with our information landscape requires that we are comfortable with what we cannot know for sure, able to approach uncertainty with curiosity, and have a toolkit of ethical practices for exploration.  \nWhat can we do as educators to encourage the ethical practice of curiosity, not just for times of uncertainty but as an everyday habit? What are we doing that inhibits curiosity? How can we pair curiosity with robust ethical practices that lead to creating, evaluating, and sharing information with integrity? And, in an already deeply divided society with a fractured media landscape, how can we be prepared for the ways these ambiguous moments of not knowing can be weaponized to cause confusion and undermine democracy itself?  \nNo Question About It  \nThe way we learn how to explore uncertainties has a profound impact on how we practice curiosity because these two things are deeply and richly interconnected. College instructors are likely to say they assign inquiry to encourage creativity and original thought. In practice many research assignments are designed primarily to expose students to preexisting scholarship and to promote familiarity with library resources and academic writing conventions. Writing and research instruction is oëen focused o","cbCaik1PXSPwgdE1","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaik1PXSPwgdE1","pdf",1479376,13,"English","# Principled Uncertainty: Why Learning to Ask Good Questions Matters More than Finding Answers\n## The learning gap in information literacy\n## Covid-19 as a demonstration of uncertain information\n## What educators can change\n## “No Question About It” and the limits of research-paper pedagogy","[{\"question\":\"What problem does the essay identify in how students are introduced to research?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that current instruction does not encourage ethical, open-ended curiosity, leaving many students unsure how to pose their own questions.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the essay use the Covid-19 pandemic as an example?\",\"answer\":\"It shows how, early on, even experts lacked clear answers about how the virus spread and what to do, while anxiety grew through misinformation and information overload.\"},{\"question\":\"How does typical “research paper” pedagogy affect students’ curiosity?\",\"answer\":\"Because authority in sources is treated as paramount and plagiarism-avoidance is emphasized, students may retreat from original questions that cannot be clearly answered in the materials they find.\"}]","Principled Uncertainty: Why Learning to Ask Good Questions Matters More than Finding Answers | PDF",1792059078,33]