Most teachers waste their time by asking questions which are intended to discover what a pupil does not know, whereas the true art of questioning has for its purpose to discover what the pupil knows or is capable of knowing. ~ Albert Einstein
I saw this quote posted by Kim Castle on Facebook the other day.
Those must have been teachers from Albert Einstein's generation, certainly not those trained in John Dewey's style of experiential learning.
During my ten years in the classroom, questioning students was about getting them thinking and applying the knowledge to which they've just been introduced. Questioning is a fantastic way to build rapport with your group. If you question in the right progression, your audience will come out of their shells. They'll start to share their creative ideas. Not only that, but once you get them thinking and sharing, your little classroom laboratory becomes a place where everyone can learn new perspectives from one another. This is the point where the connections are cemented and relationships built, not just between you, the seminar leader and your audience, but between the audience members themselves.
You have to start off small and easy to get your audience to feel safe about taking a risk and exposing themselves to the rest of the group. If you've never heard of Bloom's taxonomy of questions, then please read on on the types of questions to start with in your workshop or seminar, and how to progress over time to really get that creativity expressed and out there into the laboratory of the educational experience you're leading.
Here's Bloom's taxonomy translated, with some examples of each question type to use with your audience. Start off with level 1, and then progress to the others as your audience gets more comfortable with you, the material, and the rest of the group
Level 1- Knowledge questions: (essentially memorization and recall)
What are the six levels of question types?
In the book Three Cups of Tea, what were the circumstances that initially led Greg Mortenson to the building of his first Pakistani school?
Restate the facts surrounding Brown v. Board of Education.
Level 2- Comprehension questions: (basic understanding)
In your own words, describe each of the six levels of questioning.
Explain the purpose of Mortenson's mission to build schools in remote Pakistani mountain villages as given in Three Cups of Tea.
Discuss the existing laws that were being challenged in Brown v. Board of Education.
Level 3- Application questions: (using knowledge in new situations)
Demonstrate the benefit, if any, of Bloom's question types to the development of deeper thinking and understanding of a body of content.
How can building schools for impoverished communites in developing countries around the world be of benefit to U.S. citizens?
What were the social implications of the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education?
Level 4- Analysis questions: (critical thinking or breaking the knowledge down)
Analyze the pros and cons of Bloom's theory on thinking skills.
Determine the elements or primary conditions needed to make Mortenson's program successful in any developing community around the world.
To what extent did the Brown v. Board of Education decision achieve it's goal? Explain why.
Level 5- Synthesis questions: (creative thinking)
Construct a series of questions from each of Bloom's six question types from the content of your own workshop/ area of expertise.
Design a program for building schools to educate impoverished communities around the world as well as the process for its execution.
Looking back on history, create your own implementation plan for U.S of the legal and societal changes established in the Brown v. Board of Education decision.
Level 6- Evaluation questions: (evaluating new knowledge)
Compare and contrast the usage of the questioning levels within your own workshop. Did it improve your audience's understanding of the content matter?
Assess Greg Mortenson's program to promote peace by building schools in impoverished communities. Will he be successful? Why or why not?
Evaluate the success of the Brown v. Board of Education decision and its implementation in achieving greater equality between different U.S. racial groups.
The next blog post will address how to give feedback to audience responses. That's a big part of relationship building too.
Related posts:
- Building Audience Relationships
- Turn an Audience of Wallflowers into Enthusiastic Participants
- Audience Relationship and the Problem of Accessibility
- How Does Bruce Connect with His Audience Like That?
- Public Speaking: Why Chat With “Fake Friends”?
Tagged as:
audience relationship building,
fearless public speaking,
Workshop design
