The Ultimate Training Workhop Handbook, Chap 13

WORKING WITH QUESTIONS

For a successful workshop, it is imperative that we motivate participants and keep them engaged in the learning process.  Questions are key to for helping students delve deeper into content being presented.

Questions are used to get participant attention, give information, start participant thinking, bring content to a conclusion, and to get information.

As we use questions in our workshops, we must consider the structure and orientation of our questions, options for directing questions, how to ask questions, and how to challenge with questions.

Using effective questioning skills in our workshops will greatly affect how material is received and synthesized by participants.  As we are more comfortable with material being presented and well versed in the content, we can spent more time working on the types of questions we ask participants.

With each presentation, we can do a self assessment of our questioning skills. We should take notes of our strengths and weaknesses.

1.  How adept are we at using questions in a group?
2. Are we able to get discussion going in a productive way?
3. What are our strengths
4. How could we improve our questioning skills?

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED?

In my individual teaching experience yesterday, I found that I was much better at fielding questions as I got more comfortable with the group.  At first, after asking a few initial questions, I got a lot of blank stares.  Because I worried about the silence, I then started answering my own questions. 

As I began to relax, I was able to slow down and be more methodical about my questions.  After presenting a business related scenario involving personnel, I asked the class how they would have dealt with the difficulty of the situation.  We had a hearty discussion and were able to dissect the issues one at a time.  I tried to steer the conversation with additional questions and found that the group began to take ownership of the scenario and were able to engage as if they were the senior level executives having to make the difficult decision about whether a particular employee would be kept or dismissed.  A very fun and stimulating experience!