723 Conducting OSH Training

Ask It!

Asking and Answering Questions

The two basic types of questions a trainer uses during a presentation are open-ended questions and closed questions.

Open-ended questions require an extended response. Below are some points to remember about open-ended questions.

• Open-ended questions result in more discussion of ideas, opinions, and feelings
• They most often begin with a "what," "how," "when," or "why"
• Requests may begin with a "discuss," "identify," "describe," or "analyze"
• This open-ended question works well - "What are your questions for me?"
• If students are slow to respond, say something like, "OK, this is the audience-participation portion of the program." If the right tone of voice is used, it gets a laugh and several answers.

Closed questions require only a one word "yes" or "no" or other short answer. Below are some points to remember about closed questions.

• This type of questioning closes off discussion.
• Usually begins with "is, are, do, does, can, or will"
• This closed-ended question doesn't work - "Are there any questions?" You will usually get dead silence.

Asking students open-ended questions will result in the most information and result in a more interesting presentation. You can always "piggy-back" off the student responses with more questions. Relying on closed questions will result only in a series of short responses like "yes, no, maybe, and occasionally I-don't-know." You can see that these responses won't give you a lot of information. I have found that the training will usually be more boring to the students as well.

Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.