What Was the Question?

One of my crazy college friends recently posted this.

My teacher once went around the room giving us a problem to solve. She said, "Eddie, tell me something you are not good at using the letter "N"." I said, "Spelling."

On the surface, it may seem kind of confusing. Well, unless you know him. Then you just kind shrug your shoulders, turn it sideways, and finally decide that he was serious. I mean there is an ‘N” in spelling. As a teacher, it makes total sense. He answered the question, just not in the way the teacher intended. It actually happens pretty often. Most of the time the fault rests with the actual question. I have seen many test questions that on the surface are fine but can truly be quite ambiguous.

Math question during Covid:

23 students are at the beach. 34 more students come. How may students are at the beach?          

Answer:  Too many for Covid 19

I mean they’re not wrong…

Last week on a test I asked a question about possible interactions of two environmental factors. What I hadn’t planned for was one student’s answer of “they might not interact”. Touché! He got the points.

One of the best classes I have ever taken in college was Tests & Measurements with Miss Pohl. It taught us about using data, how to display it, and even how it is often manipulated. Yet for me, the most productive part was learning how to write clear, pointed, unambiguous questions to measure what had been learned. Too many times we ask questions that don’t really reveal what we are looking to find. We also need to carefully analyze the answers we are given. Often, they are more telling than they seem on the surface.

It’s the same with rhetorical questions. Parents & teachers often ask, “What were you thinking?”. Focus on the answer. It might just make sense in a youthful convoluted way. It may not have been what we wanted, but usually there is a solid thought process going on.

So how can we help others communicate with us? Here are some suggestions.

·       Think out your questions carefully. This takes work!

·       Repeat the answer back so they know you understood. It may be when they hear it out loud, they realize they need to add clarification.

·       Ask additional questions if necessary to make sure you have their whole answer.

·       Try to see the question from their perspective.

You can learn a lot from asking questions. Just make sure you are asking the right ones!

 “Ask and it will be given to you;

seek and you will find;

knock and the door will be opened to you.

Matthew 7:7 NIV