Dear Organlearners
Martin Silcock <martin.silcock@wedgwood.com> writes:
> I am wondering whether viewers of the list could help me with a live issue
> for me, which may also be a practical issue encountered by others in the
> field of learning organisations. The issue is how to raise questions in a
> way that does not create the feeling that we are waisting time asking
> questions!
...snip...
> .... The problem I encountered was an unwillingness and
> uneasyness about raising so many questions, and a desire to cut to
> the chase and "get to some action".
...snip...
> .... It was as if questioning was not valued?
...snip...
> I thought others may have encountered this kind of thing, since asking
> questions is the key to learning. Maybe the issue is finding the best way
> and mode to do so in the circumstances. Any thoughts,
> guidelines,experience approaches?
Martin, I like your post very much You have articulated what I also often
experienced.
I think your question "How to Ask Questions" has very much to do with
mental models. For example, you accept that "asking questions is the key
to learning". I also accept it. But how many others accept it. I dare
anyone of you to ask your audience the following question.
Rate the following words in decreasing order of importance for learning:
tasks, notes, problems, rich data, questions, text books, lectures,
transfer of knowledge, well ordered thinking, good teachers.
I have done it couple of times with my students (150+ per class). They
usually rate questions second last. Very few students, usually less than
0.5% (7) rate questions first! My country, South Africa, may be very
different from yours, but I do not think the answers to this question will
differ so much. From this we can learn one very important lesson. Never,
never assume that your audience consider questions as the key to learning.
In fact, until you have made sure of the contrary, assume that your
audience will treat questions (and answering them) with disrespect.
You have also mentioned "a desire to cut to the chase and "get to some
action"". In other words, you have noticed that the impatience of your
audience with respect to questions and answering them. This is a very
important clue to solving your problem. First of all, I will formulate
your statement "asking questions is the key to learning" even stronger:
"Questions are the principal creativity tool of humankind."
I can substantiate this statement by two means. Firstly, I can show
through the history of humankind how questioning lead to creative
accomplishments. Secondly, I can argue through the "becoming-being" nature
how a question behave very much the same as "entropy production".
But what I would rather want to point to, is that the answer to any
question is a creation itself. There are many things important to
creations. I want to draw your attention to two things.
Firstly, consider time. Every creation (and thus answer) needs time to be
completed. The more complex a creation (and thus answer) the longer its
intrinsical creation time. We can dilate (lengthen) the creation time of
any creation, but we cannot reduce it to a value smaller than its
intinsical value. From this we can draw two valuable lessons. Never ask
questions if there is too little time available to answer them completely.
Never ask questions when the audience show any signs of impatience.
Secondly, consider bifurcations. Before creativity can lead to
bifurcations, there first has to be a movement towards the edge of chaos.
In the case of questions it is noticeble as the many "tries" to answer a
certain question. Most people perceive these "tries" as "errors" and not
as brain-storming, an increase in chaos of becoming.Thus they refrain from
participating and thus fail to reach the edge where the bifurcation lies.
But let us assume that the majority participate with silent brain-storming
so that they also reach the bifurcation point. It can result into
constructive creations or destructive creations. In the case of question
it leads constructively to the correct answer or destructively to a wrong
answer. Whatever the case, the person will stick to his/her answer.
Remember that both types of answers (contsructive or destructive) can be
formulated in many possible metaphors. An answer is not wrong if it is
formulated in another metaphor as the one which you have expected.
Obviously, in the case of wrong answers, we will want to help the person
into finding the correct answer. This is wrong! The issue here is not any
more the question and its correct answer, but that which prevented the
emergence of the correct answer. This is a complex issue, much more
complex than the original question and its correct answer. Because of this
complexity involved, we need much time if we really want to help the
person. Never, never try to help a person who stick to a wrong answer
before the rest of the audience. A "white lie" is here in order - thank
the person for the answer and try to ellicit other answers.
If I can summarise, cultivate a questioning spirit in which trying to
answer a question, even if it take frustrating many tries, is the key. And
what applies to the answer, applies to the question also. Prepare yourself
to formulate the question in as many different ways as possible. Often the
problem is not with the answer, but with the question.
Best wishes
--At de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre for Education University of Pretoria Pretoria, South Africa email: amdelange@gold.up.ac.za
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