Why do people fear questions they can’t answer?

Something I used to aim for as a teacher when not feeling too rough was getting students sufficiently involved that they’d come up with a question I didn’t know the answer to.

Don’t know is of course not remotely the same as can’t find out.

An acquaintance recently described part of his medical training following a Consultant around hospital wards. Seriously ill people often have questions. Sometimes the consultant would be asked something he didn’t happen to know the answer to. This is to be expected. We can’t know everything,even about stuff we specialise in;unless our specialist area is something trivial and finite like ‘the works of John Donne’. This Consultant however would never admit to ignorance in front of a patient. If he didn’t know then he’d make up an answer that sounded plausible.

The only thing that partly redeemed him was that occasionally,once away from the patient,he’d turn to his students and say,“Don’t quote that answer in an examination”.

Hmmm. My hands don't look dirty sir.

In 1964 I was privileged to be one of a pioneer class trying out Nuffield Biology. Our text book was a ring binder,and every month or two we’d receive a wadge of extra pages ready punched. The course was fantastic,not least because we had an incredibly able and enthusiastic teacher. (Oi,Ron Cockitt,you know who you are. Thank you.)

Instead of being lectured,or told to read stuff up,we did experiments. I know this has become far more common,but in the sixties it was not how Biology was taught. One experiment involved assessing the quantity of bacteria on our hands by wiping them across the jelly-like substance in petri dishes,covering the dishes,and putting them in a warm environment where nasty bugs would multiply. Half the class just swiped the gel. The other half washed their hands first.

And lo and behold,those with the most bacteria on their hands were the ones who –wait for it –did wash their hands.

What a teaching opportunity,and Ron used it to maximum effect. He expressed genuine surpise and then asked us to suggest possible explanations. After some discussion we figured out the probable error. After washing our hands we’d dutifully dried them –on a towel that happened to be lying around. Washing your hands and then using a dirty towel is likely to be worse in bacterial terms than not washing them at all.

This was the most powerful experiment of many hundred we did at school because it gave the wrong answer,and because our teacher wasn’t afraid to say “I don’t know,but let’s see if we can find out”.

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