Learning through questioningTuan Le

Why is it the (only) right way?

Thinking driven by questions, not answers

Questioning is the ability to organize our thinking around what we don’t know!

Questioning in action: 3-question formula

• "The Three Questions" is a short story by Russian author Leo Tolstoy first published in 1885 as part of the collection What Men Live By, and Other Tales. The story takes the form of a parable, and it concerns a king who wants to find the answers to what he considers the three most important questions in life.

In project retrospective meetings

1. What have we done well?

2. What have we done wrong?

3. What could we do differently to improve?

To deal with daily problems (and to avoid them next time)

1. What do we have to do to recover?

2. What is the cause? What have we done wrong?

3. How to prevent/save ourselves from similar situations in the future?.

For planning my life (at any scale)1. What’s next?2. What do I want to be (or what

do I want the team to be)? 3. What is the plan?

Active vs. Passive Learning & questioning

• Questioning makes you an active learner instead of passive recipient of information.

Do all questions help you learn?

• Yes!

• No Stupid Questions, But some questions do accelerate your learning more than others.

Look at the big question – the underlying concepts

Detail question: answer found directly from a single source

• E.g. what are static or dynamic web page?

• Answering help you remember the information/facts.

Conceptual question: need to do an analysis to give the answer

• E.g. Is dynamic web a replacement of static web, what you can tell about the relationship between these two technologies?

• Answering help you understand the big picture.

Look at the challenging questions

• What is the sorting algorithm implemented in the framework/library “Y” that runs that fast?

• Could you do so?

Train yourself into thinking question routines

Elaborative interrogation & Self-explanation

• Answering why a fact is true in your own words. Doing so will turn the knowledge into your own.

Practice testing & Distributed practice

• Actively testing your memory. (E.g.: using flash cards), and

• Doing a little at a time over several study sessions (E.g. study 2 new English words a day and do it everyday vs. study 10 words in one day a week).

Did you ask any (good)

question today?

•Stop assuming, start asking.

•Learn to ask smart questions in private.