Facilitation by Questioning

The “quest” to know results in questioning. Learning also begins with questioning. One of the reason smaller children learn – unlearn – relearn very quickly is that they question more as compared to adults.

Any learning is possible once we start questioning. The trick is just ask questions and don’t look for answers. If we start looking for answers, our mind becomes a seeker and instead of questioning, we start becoming a storehouse of knowing. If we only ask questions, we remain a wonderer, our mind constantly open and just absorbing. Possibly we assume that a young child when asking questions wants to know the answers. But that need not be true – she is merely verbalizing her curious state of mind, the many channels which are open in her.

Take any topic which you want to learn. Ask loads of questions. Do not stop at the first 5-10 questions that come to your mind in the beginning. Those questions appear just by just by scratching the surface. When you go beyond the normal questions then you start exploring the topic in many different ways.

As a facilitator, it is imperative that we expand our view of the child / situation. That we look at learning anything in many different ways. Which is why when we write down, say more than 100 questions, on any aspect of facilitation, we do not get an answer, rather answers are no more needed. The questioning itself gives us so many perspectives, so much more understanding and insights.

Some guidelines for Questioning

• There are no stupid questions, so welcome all freaky, crazy, off-beat, stupid questions.

• Do not, I know I am repeating, but it is so important that we do not try and answer the questions – just ask questions
• Use all the why, what, how, when, which, what if, etc. tools to start thinking questions.
• Zoom in and zoom out to ask questions at different levels (see diagram)
• Work on questions in a group – since all of us look into things in different ways – multiple minds automatically bring sublime variety