UWS BA ePDPs

The main aim of the chapter is to highlight the importance of questioning.  There were many different themes mentioned within the chapter. Some of them were the purpose of questions, types of questions and where questions are used.

One theory presented in the chapter was the “Funnel Sequence”. This theory starts with the questioner asking many open questions but gradually these questions are substituted for closed questions. This theory is effective because the structure gradually narrows on the vital information needed.

Open questions give the respondent choice in how they want to respond and they encourage the respondent to speak. These types of questions usually require the responses to have a lot of detail. This can cause problems because respondent’s responses can become time consuming and the responses may include irrelevant information. However, closed questions usually have one right answer. There are three types of closed questions: selection question, yes-no question and identification question. Closed questions are easy to answer and allows the questioner to have control. Usually doctors, interviewers and teachers use these types of questions. Although, closed questions can limit the respondent’s answer and this can lead to a short response.

I agree with the idea that children feel scared to answer questions wrong. The chapter states that “children assume that adults will ask reasonable questions, and so they feel under pressure to respond to the expectations inherent in these questions”.  Children do not want to be wrong or show that they do not know the answer.

Reference:

‘Finding out about others: the skill of questioning’, in Hargie, O. (2011) Skilled Interpersonal Communication: Research, Theory and Practice. 5^th ed. London: Routledge.

‘Finding out about others: the skills of questioning’. In Hargie, O. (2011) Skilled Interpersonal Communication: Theory and Practice. 5th ed. London: Routledge.

Broad themes from the reading.
– What is the main aim of the chapter?
The main aim of the chapter is to highlight all the different types of questioning. It shows how they can be
applied and in which settings they can be applied in.
– Identify three or four key themes within the chapter.
– Types of questioning
– How the questions can be applied
– Relevance of questioning
– The outcome of questioning

Claims and evidence.
– Use of evidence to back-up claims – can you identify any claims made in the chapter?
It is recommended that counsellors should use open ended questions which require a more extended answer. Strong
(2006:1005) noted that ‘a good counselling question is one that requires a lengthy pause to answer’.
– What evidence is used to substantiate the claims – discuss one example.
(Robinson and Heritage,2006) gave an example of when a Doctor asks an open-ended question of ‘What brings you in
today?’ This question requires an in-depth answer as opposed to a closed question such as ‘I see you have sinus
problems?
– Are there any arguments presented in the chapter? E.g. particular theory or idea presented within the chapter?
Sanchez (2001) cited a study showing that an average doctor’s appointment was 2.1 minutes and within this time
Doctors asked 27.3 questions. This means there is little time left to answer the questions, let alone ask their
own questions.
(Roter and Hall, 2006) also argue that people don’t ask questions of Doctors for the fear of appearing ignorant.

Analysis and evaluation.
– Do you agree with everything written in the chapter?
Yes, I do agree with what is written in the chapter.
– Is there anything you disagree with?
I disagree with the examples of why people don’t ask questions of Doctors.
– Pick one thing you might disagree with; what evidence can you use to defend this stance?
My reason for this is because I believe not all circumstances were covered such as the patients mental state of
mind, or their anxiety levels with worry about the outcome of the consultation. None of these factors were
mentioned and these would have an impact on the patients questioning skills, or ability to question, regardless
of their intelligence.
Knowledge and Understanding.
– What theories or concepts are mentioned in the chapter?
The chapter tells of the different concepts involved in questioning such as the Funnel Sequence which uses open
and closed questions. It also tells of the different scenarios when these questions are more appropriate, such as
interrogation, or the classroom setting.
– Try to explain at least one in your own words.
Both types of questions play a significant role in communication and finding out information. However, some
theorists such as Dohrenwend state that the answers to open questions can be quite lengthy and don’t provide the
information needed or required. An example of this would be in an interview or courtroom.

Group and leadership

In the outdoor activity, I feel that there was a team leader. One of my team-mates had a history of camping and working outdoors and therefore had many ideas in which we could complete the task successfully. We made the decision of the team leader through a group-decisions on our strengths and people volunteering for roles. The action that marked them as the leader was how they instructed the rest of the group on what to do. They explained how they wanted the den to look and how we were going to accomplish this, while also following the correct criteria. They took lead on building the den while telling others on further materials we would need. They also informed us of what materials we could trade. In result of this, I feel that the team worked well together, and we all participated. I do think that we should have swapped roles at some point during the exercise to allow each other to get the opportunity to try different roles rather than just one. This would have allowed us to explore more variety of communication skills. I feel the most challenging part of working within this group was communicating with different people as the groups were mixed.

Explaining

I feel the group explained everything very well as they described everything clearly and concisely. They talked at a good pace with a loud voice to ensure we heard anything. They also pointed at each thing they were describing to allow us to add visuals to their explanation. When listening to the other group and how they built their dens, they missed out on describing how they had planned their dens and how they chose theirs and based their explanation on the final piece.

Environment

I believe my communication changed due to being outdoors. As I was communicating in an open space and there were other groups in the surrounding area, in order to communicate successfully I had to use a higher volume for my group to be able to hear me. I also had to have a closer proximity to whoever I was talking in order for them to hear successful and so I did not need to shout. If far away from my teammates I would also use gestures like a thumbs up or down when finding different materials and checking if we needed them or not. I felt at times it was difficult to speak above the sounds in the environment. To overcome this, we used gestures and signals to each other rather than words. To make communicating in this environment easier I believe that huddling together allows everyone to be heard better if they are within closer proximity. I think the speaker should gathering everyone together in a place in which nothing is happening in the background to allow everyone to focus on what you are saying rather than what’s going on behind them. I also think using a louder volume is a necessity to allow everyone to hear over the background noise of the outdoors. Through our decision at the end, I felt it was difficult hear the speaker due to the noisy environment. I also feel people were still talking through the decisions as they were still hyped up from the activity. To overcome this, we could do pre-discussions and reflecting indoors in which will help to keep concentrating and focus on the speaker as well as allowing listeners to clearly hear anything being said with no confusion. It will also allow people to calm and settled down after the excitement.

Negotiating

Our negotiations were successful. After planning how we were going to build the den and the materials we would need in order to do so, we gathered all the materials we did not need. We then analysis each group and guess what materials they needed we did this through communicated with each other and agreeing on decisions. We then used these objects to trade for ones we needed. While trading we had to use our persuading skills to help the trade take place. We did this by telling them what they could use it for and how helpful it would be for them to have. Therefore, our negotiations were successful due to our ability to agree on decisions and debating skills. The most challenging part of our negotiations was when people did not want the item we wanted to trade. To overcome this, we explained to them how they could use the material to trade with another group for something they had that they wanted. This was successfully. In order to complete this stage, we had to have confidence in what we were saying, and this allowed us to communicate well. We had to approach others in a way that was friendly and made them want to negotiate with us. Another challenging part was when people would not agree with the trade and we had to give up. This meant we had to go back to our group and discuss or next tactic.

The chapter “Finding About Others: The Skill of Questioning” has a main aim of explaining the number of different types of questions that can be used and how it contributes to communication. It identifies that questioning can be looked as a simple process by many, however it is quite complex and a powerful way of communicating.

The chapter has allowed me to think more about how I interpret questions and also how to ask questions as a student teacher. There are a lot more types of questions than I was previously aware of such as process, probing and leading questions.

Process questions allows the respondent to think intensively about the question being asked such as having time to think about their own opinion, making a judgement on the question and predicting. Research suggests that these types of questions are most efficient in developing the participation and achievement of individuals of high intellectual ability, however I disagree with this. I believe everyone is capable to think to intensively and bring their own opinion to what is being asked, certain individual’s may need extra support to do so.

The chapter emphasised that the lack of questions being asked in a classroom environment is due to pupils being concerned about the negative reaction from the class. I can agree with this research due to my own personal experience. I have learned that it can be common for individuals to judge or laugh at certain questions being asked in a classroom environment and this leads me to lack confidence to speak out within a large group of people. However, I am learning to overcome this as a developing student teacher.

Waterman (2001) has argued that both asking questions and answering is a vital part to communication and is essential to everyday life. Questioning is an ability that is constantly used, and it is a powerful tool to find out about someone.

Reference: ‘Finding out about others: the skill of questioning’, in Hargie, O. (2011) Skilled Interpersonal Communication: Research, Theory and Practice. 5th ed. London: Routledge.

This content is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

On my first day of placement, I was put into a P3 class with varying levels of ability.  The helpful class teacher and I reviewed the documentation I need to complete and established a plan to enable me to complete the tasks whilst observing, learning and taking part in lessons when appropriate.  In the numeracy lesson, it was good to see what we have been learning at University put into practice, and today it was word problem solving which was a coincidence as we only had a lecture on this this week.  It really helped me seeing what strategies she was using so that all the children understood using ‘our skills’.  The children were asked to create their own word problems for their peers to complete at the next lesson.  In Literacy, the lesson was on poetry writing and the teacher reinforced previous learning in terms of structure, theme of the poem and the features the children should use.  The class wrote some wonderful poems with great use of alliteration and similes and rhyming.  The class were taken outside for ‘muddy movers’ which involved construction of something they had to go over, go under and balance on with the crates and wooden planks available.  Great team building took place with a lot of chatter and exchanging of ideas, there were also lots of muddy knees and hands by the end too! I’m really looking forward to returning next week.

Kimberley-Anne McLeish B00369297 Tuesday 21/1/2020
Communication in Other Environments – Louise

Group and Leadership
A group leader wasn’t chosen, and the question wasn’t asked if anyone wanted to be a group leader. We all had an input as to where we wanted to build our den and what materials we wanted to use. I feel that everyone felt included and had an equal say.

Explaining
The group were very clear in explaining what they wanted to do and where. The explaining was really happening whilst building the den and demonstrating it. So, therefore, on reflection, we could have had more input in the planning stage, and it could have been explained at this point how the structure of the den was going to look.

Environment
The outdoors environment made you feel more relaxed and you didn’t feel as though there was pressure on you whilst doing the given task. At some points, you had to change the tone and pitch of your voice for people to hear and pay attention to you. The reason for this was because everyone was further apart as opposed to sitting next to one another in a classroom. The only challenges I felt was because no one was close and everyone was off in different directions getting materials, so therefore, if you wanted to communicate something you weren’t always doing it to the whole group. The environment didn’t really have a huge impact with regards to communication and listening because we had chosen an area which was quite secluded away from lots of people, and there wasn’t any noise from busy roads either.

Negotiation
Our negotiation tactics were successful because we were explaining the benefits of what we were trying to swap with and giving different ideas for uses of our materials. The challenges were that people became attached to their own materials and really didn’t want to part with them.