A. Purposes of Questioning.
B. Questioning approaches
C. Types of Questions
D. The key features of good questioners
E. Questioning types to be avoided
Good questioning techniques are essential for developing effective training presentations.
This is called establishing "entry behaviour". It is necessary so that the trainer can avoid repetition, and target the level of presentation appropriately, clearly an important step at the beginning of a course. This approach is often part of a Training Needs Analysis.
At the beginning of a session, questions help reinforce the learners' understanding of "where we are now". For the trainer, answers to questions indicate the class' ability to proceed to new topics or a warning to reteach some older material before proceeding.
Sitting and listening for extended periods leads to inattention. Questions draw a participant's mind back to the topic.
Questioning draws on the experience of the participants. It shows that the presenter is willing to involve others and is interested in their opinions.
Questions help break the monotony of explanation, and provide a cue to learners that a new segment of information follows. Questions give participants a break from listening only to the presenter. They are the key to two way communication.
Questions posed to specific participants can correct undesirable behaviour e.g. talking while others are speaking, inattentiveness, sleeping etc.
A very important thing to do, after giving a set of instructions to a class, is to check that they know what is expected of them. The most useful question is, " Now! What do you have to do?"
Questions may be directed to groups or individuals. Avoid directing questions in a predictable seating order. Direct questions to the back, centre, front and corners of the room in a random fashion. Don't ask the same one or two people all the time.
To ensure that all participants consider the question, ASK the question, PAUSE for several seconds while looking around the group, then NAME the person to respond.
Example: "Why do presenters use questions?" (Pause .......) "Maria?"
It is essential to show a response to a participant's answer. If they are ignored, they will assume their answer was wrong. Your silence will be seen as a punishment and the participant may not try to answer again. How can you respond?
1. Open questions are those which can be answered by a variety of responses.
Example: " What are the names of some of the important islands in the Pacific Ocean?"
2. Closed questions are capable of only one correct answer. These are useful to test recall.
Example: " Who is the current president of the United States of America?"
3. Rhetorical / Dramatic questions are those for which the presenter doesn't expect an answer. Example : "What then is the solution to our problem? Obviously there is no easy answer. etc ..... "
( i ) Are brief and concise.
( ii ) Are prepared to rephrase questions
( iii ) Are prepared to draw further responses from participants
( iv ) Use a variety of techniques
( v ) Redirect questions / responses
( vi ) Provide feedback and reinforcement without repeating answers
( vii ) Spread questions around the class.
When teaching a second language, these are invaluable. In the everyday training room, however, they are useless because the trainer is then forced to ask, "Why?" or "Why not?"
These precede the real question and take the form, "Who can tell me ......" or "Who would like to tell me ... " or " Can someone help by ..... ?"
Here the presenter gives the group a range of answers to chose from, a good technique in a written test but not in spoken form.
Example: "Who discovered the east coast of Australia?............ Well, was it Tasman, Cook or Dampier?"
The presenter asks a large number of questions, leading to confusion because participants don't know which to answer first.
Example: "Is Gender Development appropriate in the context of third world countries or would you agree that population control, which is given greater emphasis, will naturally bring a correction to the status of women, or is this just a feature of some aid programs implemented by international agencies?"
Example: " Would the elimination of illumination in the premises contribute to the cessation of production by the employed personnel ?"
It is simpler to say, " If you turn the lights off, will the staff continue working ?"