3.14 Which Method of Questioning to Use

This section closes the questioning material by tabulating the four operational question types the instructor selects between. Each row pairs a type with its purpose, the response it is designed to elicit, and an example phrasing.

#Question-type selection table

#How the four types map onto the questioning material

The four-row taxonomy above is the operational summary of the question discipline laid out from 3.5 Questioning through this section:

• OPEN questions begin with one of the six interrogatives Kipling lists in 3.11 Additional Questioning Techniques and are explicitly named as the antidote to the "Yes / No or 50 / 50" failure mode in 3.8 How to Use Questions. They are the dominant mode in the lesson Body to drive discovery learning, and the dominant mode in the LOFT debrief setting documented in A1.4 Facilitation Techniques and 7.3 General Debrief Techniques.
• CLOSED questions are the Testing-question type from 3.7 Types of Question in operational form. They are tightly bounded and are useful where a specific factual recall or a single yes / no determination is needed, such as in the Check stage of the Theory Lesson Body step (see 3.3 Methods of Teaching Cognitive Skills) or in the 3.6 Putting the Question. The yes / no prohibition in 3.5 Questioning applies to questions of substance: a closed question used to confirm a specific data point is fine; a closed question to teach a key point is not.
• PROBING / BUILDING questions are the deepening tool. They follow up the open question to take the student's first answer further. In facilitation terms, this is the "deepen the discussion" pattern from A1.4 Facilitation Techniques: ask questions that begin with what, how, and why. The example phrasings ("Tell me more…", "Why was that?", "Explain……") map directly onto the Appendix 1 examples.
• SUMMARISING questions confirm agreement and close a topic before the lesson moves on. They are the question form of 3.2 Establishing Set and Closure and the 3.11 Additional Questioning Techniques discipline.

#Drawn from Appendix 2: the four-type table is an assessable instructor competency

The Pilot Instructor / Examiner Competency Framework Unit 4 Conduct Training treats the question-type selection skill as assessable instructor behaviour. Element 4B (Demonstrates effective presentation skills) behaviour (f) reads "Demonstrates effective questioning skills"; Element 4C (Demonstrates effective instruction and facilitation) behaviour (c) reads "Asks appropriate questions to encourage learning or to confirm understanding"; behaviour (e) reads "Promotes trainee participation by questioning, redirecting, balancing participation, etc."; behaviour (g) reads "Demonstrates effective application of the LOS Facilitator behaviours (refer to Appendix 1)."

The four-type taxonomy is the operational specification of 4B(f) and 4C(c). An instructor who can name the four types, justify the choice for any moment, and produce questions of each type from a key point on a lesson plan is meeting both behaviours; an instructor who cannot is not. Behaviour 4C(g) extends the same skill into LOFT debrief context: the framework's own Appendix 1 (Facilitation Competencies, Behaviour 2 "Uses Questions Effectively") names "Uses probing and follow-up questions to get trainees to analyse in depth and to go beyond yes / no and brief factual answers" as a required behaviour, which is the Probing / Building row in debrief form. Full reproduction at A2.5 Unit 4 Conduct Training.

#Connections

• 3.5 Questioning. The opening section of the questioning chain that closes here.
• 3.7 Types of Question. The two-class Testing-vs-Teaching taxonomy that this four-type taxonomy operationalises.
• 3.8 How to Use Questions. The faults each type avoids when used to its purpose.
• 3.11 Additional Questioning Techniques. The Socratic-vs-Facilitative distinction the four types can be deployed in either of.
• 3.13 Which Method of Teaching to Use. The same selection-by-objective logic at the lesson level.
• 4.1 Introduction. How aids assist the methods selected through the questioning material.
• A1.4 Facilitation Techniques. The upstream FSF / NASA treatment that the OPEN and PROBING / BUILDING rows are the classroom analogues of.
• A2.5 Unit 4 Conduct Training. The competency framework that codifies the question-selection skill as assessable instructor behaviour.
• 7.3 General Debrief Techniques. Applies the four-type taxonomy in the LOS / LOFT debrief setting.