Train-the-Trainer by DataHomeLab

3.5 Questioning

3.5.1 Introduction

Most people in their daily lives prefer to be participants rather than spectators. Whilst the keen cricketer enjoys watching a test match, he generally prefers and enjoys actively playing a game of cricket far more. Similarly most people actively pursue a hobby rather than observing the results of other people's hobbies. By actively engaging in sports and hobbies, new skills are learned, feedback on abilities is obtained, stimulation is generated and a sense of satisfaction is gained from desired results.

Similarly, the same principles of participation apply to learning in the classroom. Too often, communication from instructor to student is a one-way process due to the instructor reciting information to the students. This is why Lectures are the least effective means of teaching. One-way communication is not effective as it makes the student a spectator. Just as a student is unlikely to learn a sport by being a spectator only, one-way communication in the classroom is unlikely to be effective instruction. To aid the learning process, the instructor needs to make the student a participant. One of the most important techniques for making the student a participant is by asking questions.

Questioning is one of the basic techniques of instruction where the instructor stimulates student thinking and activity. Student and instructor both gain from questioning. By asking questions and appraising student answers, the instructor gains an insight into how the student thinks and how the student is progressing. Students will best remember those things that they have worked out for themselves. By asking questions, the instructor generates student thought to establish new facts and to recall information. Thus questioning is one of the most powerful techniques of instruction available to the instructor. Questioning enables the instructor to feel the "pulse" of the class.

For the instructor, the value of questioning can be regarded as oral testing. As such, the answers will provide the teacher with instant feedback as to his effectiveness in covering a particular point. It follows that questioning should be an integral part of every lesson, and that as a gauge of instructor effectiveness, the results of questioning should be carefully analysed. If question answers are faltering, hesitant, and incorrect, then the teacher can assume that his original objectives were unrealistic, or that his lesson planning needs re-evaluation.

For the student, questioning can provide instant feedback as to whether he has grasped the point.

3.5.2 Basic Techniques of Questioning

All questions share the common element that if a response (answer) is to be elicited, then the question must be clearly understood by the respondent. Three components are involved in the presentation of a question.

Clear Phrasing of the Question

This is controlled by:

  • The grammatical structure.
  • The number of concepts contained within the question; questions are often difficult to follow because they are turned into statements. When this happens, often more than one concept is asked about.
  • Voice production and control; the stopping or restructuring of a question during presentation should be avoided. This can be minimised if you plan in your mind the structure of the question before it is actually asked. Key questions can be planned for on the lesson plan.

Indicating the Form of Response Required

Contained within the question should be a clue as to the form of response that is considered acceptable by the questioner. For example:

  • "Did you solve the problem?" may receive the response "Yes". In relation to the question the answer is acceptable, however the questioner really meant to ask "Explain how you solved the problem".
  • Questions should contain specifying words such as "explain", "describe", "relate", "analyse" which give clues as to the degree of detail required in the answer.

Identify the Respondent (Person to Answer)

In most situations, who responds to the question must be indicated by the instructor, otherwise balanced student participation cannot take place and meaningful feedback to the instructor on the level of knowledge of all students will not be available. The techniques for indicating who is to answer have been classified into two groups:

  1. Verbal: the use of names or pronouns (you).
  2. Non-verbal: the use of gestures or facial movements such as smiling and nodding, eye contact, proximity ranges.

After the lesson, evaluate your questions. Did they succeed? If not, then re-phrase for the next series.

3.5.3 Good Questions

  • Clarity and simplicity. A successful question asks something definite in clear and simple English that every student in the class can understand. Be sure that the vocabulary you use is understood by the students.
  • A definite point consistent with an objective of the lesson.
  • A challenge, be thought provoking.
  • Total relevance to the subject being taught.

3.5.4 Unsatisfactory Questions

  • Ambiguous, have confusing constructions, ask for double answers, and are wordy:
    • Specify the terms in which the answer is to be drawn, e.g. not "where is the operator's headquarters" when you mean "what is the address of the operator's headquarters?".
  • Those that can be answered by a "yes" or "no":
    • There is scope for guessing.
    • There is often little work for the student to do.
  • Open-ended:
    • As such invite a chorus of replies to the question, e.g. "the first operator to embrace the CRM concept was who?". Invites all to answer at once. Such questions do not make the shy, lazy or dull student work.

Cross-pollination from Appendix 1: questions as the primary facilitation tool

The Flight Safety Foundation / NASA treatment of questioning (reproduced in full in A1.4 Facilitation Techniques) frames questions as the load-bearing tool of LOS / LOFT debriefing facilitation. The five question patterns the FSF / NASA manual organises around (set the scene and ask for crew reaction; lead the crew to topics; deepen the discussion; follow up on crew topics; turn crew questions back to them) operationalise the same skill the questioning chain teaches in the classroom context. The classroom and debrief disciplines are the same discipline at different scales: a question that fails the "yes / no" test in the classroom fails it equally in the debrief.

Two principles from Appendix 1 deserve foreshadowing here:

  • Ideally, questions should be phrased to require more than a simple "yes" or "no" answer; questions should push a crew (or a class) to analyse its performance at a deeper level. The "yes / no" prohibition above is the same rule.
  • The instructor should be wary of dominating the discussion with their own questions. To the extent necessary, questions help students identify issues, follow up on topics, and encourage them to thoroughly explore their thinking through direct discussion with each other.

Connections