The art of asking questions (And answering them)
Questions come in categories. I learned that in my senior year in college taking a “Test and Measurements” course preparing for a career in teaching.
Hated it! Did not get a good grade in it! I will hide behind what the teacher told us as to a belief why you should not fail a student who failed your tests: “You have not tested the student on what he has learned in your class” which implies you only wanted the student to learn what you wanted him to learn. Nifty, huh? I’ll say, but that is the way it was with me and perhaps a few other students in my class who had the additional labor of constructing and reading graphs, averaging numbers and a host of other things not directly related to our music major.
And adding pain and misery to our little Bach and Beethoven orientated heads, mind you, as a project we had to construct several test in our major and send that test through all sorts of changes for a grade! All of this just to be able to teach our students “This land is your land” and “Stout hearted men”.
It was rough but here I am a long way from the Spring of 1960 musing over things I was not tested on in my “Test and Measurements” class. By the time I reached my senior year in collage, I considered the grade of “C” a benevolent gesture from my teachers in the liberal arts college. There were these guys from Africa and the Caribbean, you see. Most all educated through the British educational system. I kid you not; those guys were 100% focused and sharp as hell! They dominated the honor societies of whatever school in which they were enrolled at the university but not the fraternities and sororities we were told via small and informal group conversations. (Smile)
So it is on C-Span I see the statement of the morning program, “Grading Obama administration on economy” which of course translates to “How would you grade the Obama administration of the economy”. There was this question asked by Sarah Palin, “Who is Barack Obama?” and this evening, “Do you think it’s time for Timothy Geithner to go?” from the Lou Dobbs show.
Here is what I did learn from my Test and Measurement’s course the professor did not test me on:
1. Creating a question is a science and an art and it is serious business
2. A dumb question does not a poll maketh
3. Questions should be of such a statue the answers should not diminish its integrity
4. The question (sugar) should be of the finest quality to attract the brightest and best answers (flies).
5. The questioner has a responsibility to stimulate meaningful mental growth.
Now then, had the professor made those statements into question I know for sure I would have aced her class. (Sniff) Yes, I would’ve! (Sniff) I know I would’ve! (Sob!)
As always,
BB
P.S. I never liked “Pictures at an exhibition” by Modest Mussorgsky until today when I heard a recording with conductor Meisel and the Berlin symphony orchestra. WOW!
Reference:
Asking Effective Questions
Effective Questioning: The Art, Science and Practice
http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/crosscuttings/communication_questions.html
(And answering them)
I have noticed a lot of people feel a need to answer well constructed questions with an example as to how they perceived the question or they may even use a metaphor. I have no problems with using either methods of telling the questioner you understand the question.
However, there are some I have noticed who use the legitimate answering techniques to make efforts to obstruct the question and the questioner. In my opinion, that is the point the two people begin arguing the examples, the metaphor or both and lose sight of the original question. To that technique I am mindful of the Goethe poem “The Trout” to which the composer Franz Schubert set to music. It is a poem about a fisherman’s frustrations trying to catch a trout fish ending up violating good sportsmanship by muddying the waters in efforts to catch the fish.
At one point during the argument, we Blacks would say, “I’m not talkin’ ‘bout your Mama, I’m talkin’ ‘bout you!” and as whites would say, “What does that have to do with the question?”
Hated it! Did not get a good grade in it! I will hide behind what the teacher told us as to a belief why you should not fail a student who failed your tests: “You have not tested the student on what he has learned in your class” which implies you only wanted the student to learn what you wanted him to learn. Nifty, huh? I’ll say, but that is the way it was with me and perhaps a few other students in my class who had the additional labor of constructing and reading graphs, averaging numbers and a host of other things not directly related to our music major.
And adding pain and misery to our little Bach and Beethoven orientated heads, mind you, as a project we had to construct several test in our major and send that test through all sorts of changes for a grade! All of this just to be able to teach our students “This land is your land” and “Stout hearted men”.
It was rough but here I am a long way from the Spring of 1960 musing over things I was not tested on in my “Test and Measurements” class. By the time I reached my senior year in collage, I considered the grade of “C” a benevolent gesture from my teachers in the liberal arts college. There were these guys from Africa and the Caribbean, you see. Most all educated through the British educational system. I kid you not; those guys were 100% focused and sharp as hell! They dominated the honor societies of whatever school in which they were enrolled at the university but not the fraternities and sororities we were told via small and informal group conversations. (Smile)
So it is on C-Span I see the statement of the morning program, “Grading Obama administration on economy” which of course translates to “How would you grade the Obama administration of the economy”. There was this question asked by Sarah Palin, “Who is Barack Obama?” and this evening, “Do you think it’s time for Timothy Geithner to go?” from the Lou Dobbs show.
Here is what I did learn from my Test and Measurement’s course the professor did not test me on:
1. Creating a question is a science and an art and it is serious business
2. A dumb question does not a poll maketh
3. Questions should be of such a statue the answers should not diminish its integrity
4. The question (sugar) should be of the finest quality to attract the brightest and best answers (flies).
5. The questioner has a responsibility to stimulate meaningful mental growth.
Now then, had the professor made those statements into question I know for sure I would have aced her class. (Sniff) Yes, I would’ve! (Sniff) I know I would’ve! (Sob!)
As always,
BB
P.S. I never liked “Pictures at an exhibition” by Modest Mussorgsky until today when I heard a recording with conductor Meisel and the Berlin symphony orchestra. WOW!
Reference:
Asking Effective Questions
Effective Questioning: The Art, Science and Practice
http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/crosscuttings/communication_questions.html
(And answering them)
I have noticed a lot of people feel a need to answer well constructed questions with an example as to how they perceived the question or they may even use a metaphor. I have no problems with using either methods of telling the questioner you understand the question.
However, there are some I have noticed who use the legitimate answering techniques to make efforts to obstruct the question and the questioner. In my opinion, that is the point the two people begin arguing the examples, the metaphor or both and lose sight of the original question. To that technique I am mindful of the Goethe poem “The Trout” to which the composer Franz Schubert set to music. It is a poem about a fisherman’s frustrations trying to catch a trout fish ending up violating good sportsmanship by muddying the waters in efforts to catch the fish.
At one point during the argument, we Blacks would say, “I’m not talkin’ ‘bout your Mama, I’m talkin’ ‘bout you!” and as whites would say, “What does that have to do with the question?”
posted by BB at 11:13 PM
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