STRATEGIC QUESTIONING - thenewPE



TABLE OF CONTENTS

Processing Questions: An Aid to Completing the Learning Cycle 1

Debriefing Questions 3

Other Useful Questions 6

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PROCESSING QUESTIONS: AN AID TO COMPLETING THE LEARNING CYCLE

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Experiential learning provides activities that have the potential to involve the whole person in the educational process. Each stage of the experiential learning cycle has objectives that move toward the ultimate goal of increasing the options available to a person in the face of new but similar situations. The technique that enables the facilitator to accomplish the objectives of each stage of the learning cycle and promote movement to the subsequent stages is processing (debriefing.)

While there is complete agreement in the literature of the need for processing, there are very few guidelines for accomplishing that goal. Following is a series of questions designed for each stage of the experiential cycle.

In stage one, the experiencing phase, participants are engaged in an activity to generate data. Debriefing (processing) the data does not actually begin until the second stage, publishing (sharing.)

In stage two, the publishing (sharing) phase, participants have completed the experience. Questions are directed toward feelings, reactions, observations.

• What went on/happened?

• How did you feel about that?

• Who else had the same experience?

• Who reacted differently?

• Were there any surprises/puzzlements?

In stage three, the processing (interpreting) phase, participants now have data. Questions are directed toward making sense of that data for the individual and the group.

• How did you account for what happened?

• How might it have been different?

• Do you see something operating there?

• What do you understand better about yourself/your group?

In stage four, the generalizing phase, participants work toward abstracting from the specific knowledge they have gained about themselves and their group to super-ordinate principles. Questions are directed toward promoting generalizations.

• What might we draw/pull from this experience?

• What did you learn/relearn?

• What does that suggest to you about [communication/conflict/etc.] in general?

• Does that remind you of anything? What does that help explain?

• How does this relate to other experiences you’ve had?

In stage five, the applying phase, participants are concerned with utilizing learning in their real-world situation. Questions are directed toward applying the general knowledge they have gained to their personal and/or professional lives.

• How could you apply/transfer that?

• What might you do to help/hinder yourself?

• How could you make it better?

• What modifications can you make work for you?

Adapted by Arty Trost from Beverly Gaw’s article “Processing Questions: An Aid to Completing the Learning Cycle” in the 1979 Handbook for Group Facilitators, University Associates, pp. 147-153.

DEBRIEFING QUESTIONS

When you use an experiential training activity (e.g. exercise, simulation, role play, etc.) your goal is to help participants learn from the experience. You can improve your ability to process or debrief experiences by being clear about your objectives for a specific activity, and using objective-centered debriefing questions.

The following questions are organized by specific program objectives. This is not a complete list – your learning objectives will help you develop others. These questions fall in the publishing and processing stages of the experiential learning cycle.

Communicating Effectively

• How many different ways were used to communicate messages?

• How did you know that what you communicated was understood?

• What communication skills were used – and to what extent? (e.g. paraphrasing, perception checks, behavior descriptions, etc.)

• Give examples that demonstrate the extent to which group members listened to each other.

• Do you feel that each member listened to your ideas? What gave you that impression?

• How were silences dealt with?

Leading and Following

• Who assumed leadership roles during the activity? What did they do that caused you to think of them as leaders?

• What were the behaviors that you described as showing leadership?

• Who assumed a follower role a times throughout the activity?

• How did it feel to follow different leaders?

Making Group Decisions

• What was the primary decision making mode in your group - consensus, majority vote, unilateral (autocratic)?

• In what situations was unilateral decision making appropriate?

• When was consensus decision making most productive? Was it used inappropriately?

• How satisfied are you with the decisions that were reached by your group?

Cooperating and Competing

• Give specific examples of when the group cooperated in completing the activity. Give examples when you felt there was competition rather than cooperation.

• How did it feel to cooperate? To compete?

Dealing with Conflict and Tension

• What tensions were you aware of during the activity?

• What type of disagreements surfaced?

• Did you personally surface any discomfort/tension you may have had?

If you did, what was the response? If you didn’t, what prevented you?

• How were conflicts handled…confronted? suppressed? smoothed over?

• Do you feel individuals avoided confronting issues? What gave you that impression?

• How different were opinions within your group?

• Do you feel that you were personally attacked at any point during the discussion? What happened that gave you that impression?

• Do you feel that you attacked any of the others personally when you disagreed with them?

Respecting Human Differences & Commonalities

• How are you different from some of the others in the group?

• How did these differences strengthen the group as a whole? How did they create difficulties?

• How are you like some of the others in the group?

• Were these commonalities a help to the group in completing the task? How did they create difficulties?

Trusting the Group

• Can you give examples of when you trusted someone in the group? What created that feeling of trust for you? What did you do as a result of trusting that person, that you might not otherwise have done?

• How do you increase your level of trust for someone?

Team Interaction

• How satisfied are you with the way your team worked together?

• What feelings did you experience as the activity progressed?

• What helped the team accomplish its task?

• What got in the way?

• To what degree did you feel ownership and commitment to the team? Why?

• In what ways is this experience similar to "the real world"?

Do you see similar things happening with teams you're a part of?

• What general principles can you draw about being a team leader when team members have different ideas or approaches to a task?

Power and Influence

• What was the difference between formal and informal power? Who had informal power?

• Were any members of your group more influential than others? If so, why?

Planning

• How appropriate was your plan?

• Did you change your plan as you received new information?

• Was your goal a driving force in your processes?

• What was the most important feature in planning?

Closure Questions

• What did you learn about yourself?

• How can you use what you learned in other situations?

OTHER USEFUL QUESTIONS

PRIMING QUESTIONS - to open discussion, to get things started

• What were the major points that you heard?

• What aspects would you like to discuss?

• What points were particularly important to you?

• Where would you like to go in this discussion?

• The speaker challenged us to . . .; how do you react to this?

• The major thrust of the talk/activity seemed to be . . .; how does this relate to us?

PROBING QUESTIONS - to go deeper

• Why did you find that relevant?

• When would this apply to us?

• How would this apply?

• How could you use this?

• In what way would this help solve the problem?

• What are the pros and cons?

• Could you give us an example?

• How do you see this being a solution?

• What was there in the statement that caused you to conclude that?

• Why do you think so?

• How would this improve the present situation?

• What could be done about. . .?

• What evidence do you have?

• What would support that position?

• Who should be involved?

• Under what conditions would this be useful?

BROADENING QUESTIONS - to expand discussion

• How else could we approach the problem?

• What would be a really fresh new way f looking at it?

• What else might be included?

• What else could we consider?

• What more information is needed?

• What gaps do we have in our information?

• What other resources are available to us?

BROADENING QUESTIONS - to introduce new ideas

• What would you think about . . .?

• Would it be feasible to . . .?

• How about considering . . .?

• One alternative we have is . . .; what is your appraisal?

• Suppose we did it this way, what would happen?

COORDINATING QUESTIONS - to tie things together, to summarize

• Pat is concerned about . . . Does this affect the rest of you?

• Mary asked about . . . What is your reaction?

• So far we've talked about . . . and . . . and . . . What else concerns you?

• Jim, you mentioned you felt . . .; now Marian brings up the point that . . . Does this change your opinion in any way?

• Earlier Dave brought up the problem of . . . and we weren't ready to deal with it. Is this a good time now?

• The major point of our discussion, then, is . . .; do you have anything more to add?

• Does this represent our choice?

• Are we clear that we want to . . .?

• What action do we want to take?

• Are there any further steps we must take to implement our decision?

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