Strategic Questioning

Listening, questioning, and responding are the foundation of good discussion. Learning to question well is a hard skill to learn, requiring an awareness of how to ask different kinds of questions. Strategic Questioning invites participants to partake in an exercise designed to give them practice in varying their questioning approaches.

Purposes

• To encourage more questioning by all discussion participants
• To practice a repertoire of different question approaches that promotes deeper consideration of a topic
• To teach how to ask questions that are regarded as exploratory, not accusatory
• To underscore the role thoughtful questioning plays in advancing discussion

How It Works

• Facilitators introduce a range of question types designed to deepen discussion—together these types of questions form the mnemonic CLOSE-UP:
  1. Clarity. “What do you mean by that? Can you put that another way?”
  2. Linking. “How is that similar to what we read earlier? How does your view compare to Amalfi's?”
  3. Open-ended. “What's happening here? What interests you about this issue?”
  4. Synthesis. “What stands out from what we discussed? What big question still lingers?”
  5. Evidence. “How did you come to know this? What experience is your analysis based on?”
  6. Understanding. “Why do you think this is happening? How do you explain this situation?”
  7. Priority. “What matters to you most about this? What's the most important value or principle we should consider here?”
• People form into triads, and each person takes a turn as the sharer, questioner, and observer.
• Someone provides a topic for consideration: “What constitutes good practice?” “When are we at our best as a community or organization?” “What's the most important finding of this research?” “What does the text mean to you?” “How can we use this report to improve what we're doing?”
• In each triad the sharer gives his or her initial response to the question and the questioner poses different types of questions from CLOSE-UP to draw out the sharer.
• The observer takes note of what transpires, keeping track of the different kinds of questions asked. After five minutes the triad pauses and the observer notes the variety of questions posed.
• The exercise is then repeated but with the roles switched. After another five minutes the exercise is done a final time, again with the roles being switched. This way everyone is a sharer, a questioner, and an observer.
• The whole group reconvenes to give the members' reactions to the exercise and to assess their ability to ask different kinds of questions.

Where and When It Works Well

1. When gaining skill as a questioner is important. Teachers, trainers, professional development coordinators, and community activists all need to know how to vary questions to keep discussion going.
2. With groups lacking questioning experience. Groups that have been discouraged from voicing members' ideas in a public setting can interrogate public officials more effectively.
3. With college and university teachers. This shows students how good questions can enliven any academic setting.

What Users Appreciate

1. Acquiring a repertoire of questions. Having an easily recalled array of question types to draw on helps people ask more and better questions.
2. Recognizing the power of questioning. Users are often surprised how much good information emerges from a five-minute conversation using a range of questions.

What to Watch Out For

1. Not getting hung up on asking all seven types of questions. There is no need to cover all the question types. If three or four different formats are used that's fine.
2. The sharer gets on a roll. If the topic is especially engaging to the sharer, she or he may become so animated there is little opportunity to ask questions. Questioners should be urged to take an active role in the conversation, interrupting occasionally to steer the exchange in new directions. But even if one particular exchange doesn't go exactly as planned, doing this three times increases the chance that everyone will have one interaction that is driven by good questions.
3. Skipping the debriefing. If the conversation is intensely interesting to participants there is a risk of it going on so long that there is no time to debrief in small or large groups. Make sure you allot time for this. The point of the exercise is to raise awareness of, and provide opportunities for, different questioning approaches. It's crucial to keep the focus on how doing so enriches understanding and opens up new possibilities, and the debriefing is essential to this.

Questions That Fit This Protocol

• Questions that invite people to reflect on their personal experiences: “How do you know your students or colleagues are learning?” “What's a good day at work look like to you?”
• Questions that prompt participants to respond to a short article, report, or case study: “What's the most important finding of this research?” “What does the text mean to you?” “How can we use this report to improve what we're doing?”
• Questions that ask people to take a stance on some issue and to explain their reasons for that stance: “When are we at our best as a community or organization?” “How can we make this a more inclusive workplace?” “How should we evaluate good performance and learning progress?”