Author: Karen Hyder
You’ve been there before, in an airport waiting for a flight, or in a restaurant waiting for a friend. You feel awkward and don’t know what to look at, so you scramble for something to read or engage a stranger in small talk – anything to stave off the boredom.
In the classroom, waiting can be even more challenging. As a trainer, you wonder if you should wait for tardy students. When you ask a question and no one answers, how long should you wait for a response? You may think that for every second you don’t speak, students are losing interest -- so you answer your own questions. But think about what message impatience delivers. Remember leaving a restaurant and missing your sheepish, late friend by just seconds? What message did you send?
Asking great questions and waiting for participants to respond is the single most effective way to build interaction. Some suggest waiting up to nine seconds because, while it may feel strange to sit in silence when we want to rush in to fill the gap, students need time to process the question and formulate an answer. Students often look around to see who else might answer before they commit to offering their responses.
As trainers, engaging the learners’ thinking processes is what it’s all about. When a student thinks his way through to a solution, he’s much more likely to own and retain it than if he were simply fed the answer. By answering questions directed toward the students, we short-circuit the thinking process.
Developing great questions, however, takes some planning. Asking questions that are very simple or low-level may make students feel silly or patronized. Choosing questions drawn from advanced courses can be too risky; the chance of someone knowing the correct answer is slim.
Try this: Use a blend of relevant but easy questions and work up to more challenging ones when you’ve determined what the learners know and what they are willing to contribute.
Look for questions that encourage contribution. If I ask a question in a Networking Essentials class like “What’s MHS?” I’ll likely get a response “Message Handling Service.” And that answer would be correct. But what do I learn from that response other than one student knows what the acronym represents? If I ask, “In what product?” I’ll hear “Novell.” While this kind of questioning does develop interactions between individual students and the trainer, it’s controlled and boring and offers no opportunity for evaluating learners’ real understanding. It also allows less motivated students to switch off and let others do the work.
By asking, “Who can tell me the difference between MHS and SMTP?” I afford lots of room for contribution. One person might begin by saying, “SMTP is the e-mail transportation standard on the Internet, and MHS is the service for Novell.” I can validate his knowledge and willingness to contribute by saying, “Good, and what does the SMTP stand for?” If I make eye contact with several people and wait several seconds and still get no response, I might add a hint. “C’mon this is SIMPLE.” At that point every brain is engaged. They know the letters. They get what it means. A few students will know a few correct words, and ultimately the answer emerges. SIMPLE MAIL TRANSPORT PROTOCOL! Write it on the board. Suggest they write it down, too.
A year later, will they know what SMTP stands for? How about MHS? Will you?
Ask yourself: How will increasing student participation help improve training?
At what points during my training sessions could I change my statements into questions?
Try these strategies to prime students for participation:
© Copyright 2004 Kaleidoscope Training and Consulting. All rights reserved. Contact us for permission to reprint this article.
Karen Hyder is managing director and Trainer of Trainers at Palmyra-based Kaleidoscope Training and Consulting, and has been teaching people how to create effective adult learning relationships since 1994. Hyder is a board member of the CompTIA Cornerstone Committee, the decision-making body for the Certified Technical Trainer (CTT+) certification program.
Kaleidoscope provides technical presentation, communication and training skills through public and custom courses and individualized coaching programs. Kaleidoscope also offers software skills training, courseware development and more for clients including Eastman Kodak Co., Microsoft Corp., CIGNA, Ericsson, Morgan Stanley, Northeastern Illinois University, Unisys Corp., Diagnostica Stago Inc. and Pactiv Corp.
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