Questions

1. Questions Chapter 11

2. Key Concepts Value of Questions: Questions are essential tools in promoting learning. The question-and-answer dynamic: Asking, listening, responding. Kinds of questions: open and closed. The �stem-plus-query�: open-question style. Funnel-shaped questioning: Using gradually more closed questions to arrive at a specific answer. Responding: paraphrasing and probing.

3. Learning Objectives: After you have completed this chapter, you should be able to Explain the question-and-answer dynamic. Recognize and use basic questioning techniques. Demonstrate skills in listening. Probe for more complex information.

4. The Question-and-Answer Dynamic Questioning is one of the most basic and important skills a trainer can use. Good questions make the difference between passive trainees learning poorly and active trainees learning for themselves. Questioning is a dynamic that develops through exchange. The trainer asks a question and the trainee listens. The trainee then responds and the trainer listens. The trainer then responds. This completes the exchange.

5. The Trainer Asks a Question

6. Should You Plan Questions? Write out questions in all session plans. Use questions often. Use spontaneous questions as well as written Give the trainees an opportunity to work out their own answers.

7. Open vs. Closed Questions Questions are divided into broad categories that form a continuum from open to closed and from general to specific. Open (General) Closed (Specific)

8. Open questions can stimulate thought. It is also a way for the trainer to determine what the trainees know about the subject being taught. There are many possible causes for the war in Iraq. What do you believe are the main causes? Weber has a parking problem. What do you believe are the main causes? These are general open-ended questions that allows the trainee to draw from a wide area of information in order to answer.

9. What do you believe would be the best solution for the problem? This question asks the trainee to give one answer. Open questions tend to open up a field of discussion. They also provide the situation whereby the trainees can draw upon personal experiences. Open questions can also present ideas for new thought.

10. Structure of Open Question Normal question. �What are the causes of WSU�s parking problem?� In this question, the topic is at the end. For a stem-plus-query question, we turn the question around. �There are many possible causes for the war in Iraq. What do you believe are the main causes?� In this questioning series, the topic comes first and the query comes last--giving the trainee more time to think of and formulate an answer.

11. Funnel-Shaped Series of Questions The questioning begins with an open question. Each succeeding question becomes more definitive until the last question is closed. The first question in this series is called the primary question. The other questions in the funnel are called secondary questions. This would be used to assist a trainee to discover material that more open techniques have not generated.

12. Questioning Technique The overhead question. Ask the question. Wait for the trainee to volunteer an answer. This stimulates thought. Since the question is not directed to one trainee, it tends to make the entire group think. �An effective trainer exhibits positive characteristics. Would you list and describe three of these characteristics?�

13. The direct question. Name the person to answer. Pause (Count to 2). Ask the question. This technique helps to discipline the �talker� or the �sleeper,� and you can also use it for the �shy person.� �Katie, (pause, count to 2) we have discussed a number of ways to ask questions. What are some of these ways?�

14. The combined question. Pose the question to the entire group and then select one trainee to answer. Ask the question. Pause (Count to 3). Name a person to answer. �Last week we discussed the skill-session model. What is the order of the body of this type of model?� (Pause.) �Steffani.�

15. The relay question. The trainee asks the trainer a question. The trainer relays this question back to the group. Jordan: �In the skill-session model, what step comes after Show? Trainer: �Tom, what do you think is the step that follows Show?�

16. The rhetorical question. This type of question needs no answer. It is fairly clear that the person who posed the question is going to supply the answer or alternatively feels that the answer is so obvious that it needs no elaboration. �What is wrong with the world today?� �Who would like to finish this session early?� Avoid overusing this question. Use for variety.

17. Two Further Points

18. Be aware that trainees are learning even if they aren�t actively answering questions. Watch for nonverbal clues to determine how involved the trainee is in the discussion. Be comfortable with silence. Be prepared to wait for answers. If the trainer jumps in with the answer, the trainees will learn they do not have to answer the questions.

19. Questioning DOs Distribute your questions equally among the trainees. Use the direct question for the inattentive person. Use easy questions at the start of the session to get the discussion going successfully and to encourage the shy or quiet person to participate.

20. Questioning DOs Include questions (fully expressed) in your lesson plan. Rephrase your question if the trainee does not understand. If the trainee still does not understand the question, you could redirect the question to another trainee.

21. Questioning DONT�s Don�t question the group in a regular order (left to right). Don�t use long, involved questions. Don�t use leading questions. �You agree that WSU has a parking problem, don�t you?� (The leads the trainee to give the response you want.)

22. Questioning DONT�s Don�t overuse yes/no questions. These give the trainee a 50/50 chance to answer correctly. You can use to get a sleeper involved. Then ask the sleeper to justify his or her answer. Don�t use ambiguous questions. They generally cause confusion.

23. The Trainer Listens The trainer just listens actively. The trainer has three goals to achieve while listening. To identify the meaning of what the trainee is saying. To encourage the trainee by indicating that he or she has your attention. To promote listening and listening behavior by everyone in the group.

24. Listening for meaning. Listen for the points given without giving the answers. Encouraging the trainee. Use nonverbal cues to encourage the trainees with their responses. These nonverbal cues are called attending behaviors.

25. Promoting listening and listening behavior. You may have to encourage the trainee to speak up. The trainee could walk a little farther away from the trainee, thus, initiating the need to speak up through nonverbal cues. The trainer may also ask another trainee to comment on what the first trainee has just said. This promotes listening behavior.

26. The Trainer�s Response The way in which the trainer responds to the trainee�s answer will affect the likelihood of that trainee�s answering questions in the future. The future answering behavior of other trainees will also be affected.

27. Responding

28. 1. Paraphrasing. Repeat back to the trainee in your own words the main points the trainee offered. �So Adam, you believe three main causes of the Iraq war exist. First, Iraq was believed to have weapons of mass destruction. Second, there is a fear in the US of having oil shipments cut off. Third, there are al-Qaeda operations in Iraq.� This allows the trainee to judge whether the trainer has understood the question correctly.

29. 2. Probing. Probing is a combination of the stem-plus-query structure, paraphrasing, and the funnel-shaped series. The follow example continues with Melissa�s response from paraphrasing. �Let us look at the first of the suggested causes-- weapons of mass destruction. Would you tell us more about this please, Adam?� As Adam answers, the trainer would use nonverbal cues to indicate attention and, when Adam finishes, the trainer would then paraphrase and ask another open (stem-plus-query) question.

30. �Yes, the weapons of mass destruction were not found. Adam, why do you think no weapons were found?�

31. Probing, then, is a sequence of Asking the first (or primary) open question, using the stem-plus-query structure. Listening for meaning to the response and using attending behaviors. Paraphrasing Selecting part of the answer and using this to ask the next question in the stem-plus-query format. Continuing this process down the funnel sequence until all the information on that point is uncovered.

32. Maximizing Learning and Motivation

33. Identify both good and bad parts of the answer. Make your comments on poor answers answer-oriented rather than person-oriented. Make your comments on poor answers quite specific and suggest strategies for improvement based on techniques or concepts already mastered by the trainee. Be realistic and objective in your responses.

34. Use effective listening behavior Modify your response to fit the situation. Finally, always try to reinforce the behavior of attempting to answer a question. Do this quite apart from the acceptability of the content of the answer. �Thanks for that answer, Stephen. Now let�s look at what you have said. . . .�

35. This rewarding of the behavior of answering is very important, especially when the content of the answer is wrong or partly wrong. If you simply deal with the wrongness of the content without rewarding the behavior of answering, trainees will soon learn nonanswering behavior. Even highly developed questioning skills will then be useless.

36. Summary Questioning and questioning skills are essential to promoting good learning. Two broad categories: open and closed Questioning techniques involve overhead question, direct question, combined question. Listening is essential to good questioning. Responding to trainee�s question involves stem-plus-query structure with paraphrasing and funnel-shaped series.