Benefits
Asking questions, of yourself, of what you read, and especially of a speaker or presenter (lecturer, teacher, professosr) provides a number of benefits.
- Ask questions to stimulate curiosity. Even if you are not initially curious, asking some questions about a topic can bring your mind into a state of actually wanting to know the answers. Questions especially helpful if you find the material boring.
- Ask questions for clarification. Some books and some presenters remain too abstract to be understood easily. Asking for examples, details, or specifics can go far to help clarify the point and enable you to comprehend it. In the case of books or videos, you can’t ask the source directly, but you can take your question and search the Internet or an online database. Or you can ask a friend, classmate, colleague, or other source.
- Ask questions to contextualize. One of the most helpful learning reinforcer comes from fitting the immediate learning into the overall context, the “big picture.” It’s much easier to remember something that you understand as a part of some larger, coherent whole, than if you simply try to memorize facts as unrelalted to each other.
Techniques
Here are some question types that you can use.
- The Journalistic Six. When you read or hear something, the answers to some of the journalistic six questions are answered as part of the presentation. However, others are usually left out. Ask about what has been left out. You’ll recall that the six questions are Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How.
- And then what? This is a powerful question that asks what will happen after the presented solution is put in place. The question encourages people to think beyond the immediate situation to explore unintended consequences of the idea.
- What if? This question can be used to launch a thought experiment, in which the idea under discussion is taken to an imaginary result, either better than it was or worse. For example, “What if that doesn’t work? What is our back up plan?” “What if we increase the number of burners in the oven?” “What if the project runs into unexpected costs?”
Sample Questions
Here are some sample questions.
General Questions
- What is the main point of the information (book, article, speech, video, etc.)?
- What evidence does the author provide to support his conclusion?
- What information is missing?
- What is the author’s worldview and how does it affect the argument and conclusions?
The Seven Golden Questions of Knowledge Clam Analysis
- What is the because? Why should this claim be believed? You believe this because….
- How do they know that? Is the claim supported by experiments, reasons, authority, evidence, expert opinion? Is the claim actually knowable?
- Can you clarify that? What does this mean? Can you provide an example, a non-example, an analogy, comparison, contrast, metaphor, explanation, definition?
- What’s missing? Has anything been left out? Are there omitted qualifiers, exceptions, limitations, prerequisited, necessary factors?
- Is it really true? Is it the whole truth? Has some of the claim been exaggerated or omitted?
- And then what? What follows? What is implied? Are there unintended consequences?
- How does it fit? How does this claim integrate with other knowledge?
Debriefing a Presentation
- What did you learn from this?
- How can you use this?
- What was the main point of the presentation?
- How will this change the way you do your job?
- Was the message or point of the presentation clear?
- What were your expectations before hearing the presentation?
- Were your expectations fulfilled?
- What was the most interesting part of the presentation?
- What did you find the most useful part?
- What do you still want to know?
- What do you still need to learn?
- What has this made you curious about?
A good way to get the most out of a presentation or interview is to ask the presenter questions at the end of the specificity scale opposite to the one emphasized by the presenter.
That is, if the presenter spoke in generalities or abstractions, ask questions that require concrete answers, such as examples or specifics. On the other hand, if the presenter told stories, offered details, and left you wondering what it all means, ask questions from te abstract end of the scale.