Month: January 2020

• Group  and leadership
• Within our group, we had a very informal leader
• It just came about by someone taking initiative and thinking of ideas for our den, which we went along with
• They were the leader as they came up with the decisions our group chose, and when they said we should add something, we did
• I think this made our group work well, as we all played a part and got to make our own decisions at the same time
• The most challenging part was communicating to people I haven’t communicated with before, but overall it was a good experience to have and has made me feel more comfortable talking to other people

 

• Explaining
• I think our group explained things well. We all helped out while explaining things to lessen the burden on one person
• However, in doing so it could have made our explanation more unclear
• One of the Ps we missed out on was planning. Whenever a group came for an explanation, we didn’t plan anything in advance just went straight to explaining it. Our explanation may have been more concise had we planned.

 

• Environment
• I think it made communication a little harder, as everyone in our group was scattered around the place. E.G. we couldn’t find our tape anywhere, but it was with a member of the group who was away off on their own gathering resources.
• When explaining we could point things out, or elaborate easier as we were explaining a 3D object which we had made, so we went into more detail
• It wasn’t necessarily more challenging to hear or talk to people as it was a relatively quiet day
• I did not feel distracted by the environment when I was being talked to. In order to make it easier, however, we could ensure we are in a non-crowded area so that there are fewer distractions like leaves rustling or sticks

 

• Negotiation
• Our negotiations were successful. Within two negotiations we managed to get two building materials for free, while we traded some string for some pipe.
• The challenging part was going about pitching your materials to the other group and trying to make it worth their time to listen to you

Overall this was a super fun group activity and I think it would be beneficial for younger people to do it too!

This is a photo of the den we built!

This blog is a review of chapter 5 of “Finding out about others: the skill of questioning”.

 This chapter is centred around questioning, with its aim being to show different types of questioning done by professionals, including teachers, as well as an evaluation of each type. Some of the main themes seen throughout the reading were how we communicate through questions, what good types of questions to use in situations, and the bad types of questions to use in situations.

Hargie makes a claim that “Questions are at the heart of most interpersonal encounters” (Hargie, 2011). He uses evidence in the form of a quote by Waterman to back him up in this statement “Asking questions is a fundamental part of communication, and as such will be an important factor in the work of many professionals”. One theory/argument Hargie presented was the funnel sequence, in which you start by asking very open questions and gradually turn them into less open questions to be more specific.

While Hargie is mostly unbiased and I agree with most of what he says, I disagree with process questioning. While he believes they are suitable for older pupils, not younger pupils, I do believe younger pupils can use them as well. In order to do this, we would have to prepare them, get them used to it and give them time, but there’s no reason why they cannot do it.

One theory I have put in my own words is the tunnel sequence theory. Within this, the person consistently asks questions of the same degree of openness to obtain information. Lawyers typically use this in order to get predetermined answers.

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