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| | Post New Topic | | Questions. | Views: 81 | | Jun 02, 2009 6:51 pm | | Questions. | # | 
Denis Gibbon | | As a Teacher, one of the things I appreciated most from my Students was seeing a sincere desire to learn the theory and master the skills. When I started my English School in 1989, I thought I knew my language very well, but the truth was that in the following decade I was about to take my English language to a level that I had previously never imagined, and this was largely due to the thousands of questions I received from my Students.
Providing my Students with answers to their questions very often required me to research the subject before I delivered their answers. Believe it or not, this very often took me into the late hours of the night researching this and that. I agree that one of the best ways of learning a subject is by teaching it. This was so very true in my case.
Philosophically, I had long before adopted the idea that we already know everything that is knowable, and hence the process of teaching is an extraction of knowledge, even though it appears to be an implanting of knowledge. More about this some other time, but the point I want to make is that a good Teacher does not provide the answers to questions without first first coaching/guiding the Students to work out the answer for themselves. Not only does this better equip the Students to work independently, but it also enhances their self esteem and memorizing ability.
Let's move from the classroom to the workplace. Can you recall an employee or co-worker who was in the habit of continually asking you questions that you knew without a doubt they would not be asking if they used their own common sense? This is very worrying in a medical context, because this can indicate more than a failure to exercise common sense. It can be a cardinal sign of low self confidence. Very often under pressure it is not possible to answer the simplest of questions without first personally checking the patient's condition and circumstances. The necessity to do this places a considerable burden on supervisory staff, which is not only un-necessarily distractive, but takes its toll on the overall effectiveness of patient care. Staff should not be spoon-fed. They need to pay a price for this kind of on-the-job assistance.
One strategy that can be very effective in dealing with the problem of workers who are un-acceptably co-dependent on their Supervisors and/or co-workers, is to never help them without insisting on them doing something in return. In other words a trade. You set the price which can be made appropriate to the nature of the help provided. For example, a Supervisor may ask for a 1000-word essay dealing with the subject of the question. Using this strategy, an appropriate development program is in place which will hopefully result in heigtened proficiency, self confidence and will reduce un0necesary demands on the time of Supervisors and other staff, who after all have their own priorities to deal with.
How much thought do you put into the design of the questions you ask or seek the answers to? A Teacher could learn a lot about the level of his/her students' understanding of a subject by asking each student to provide a list of 10 specific thought-provoking questions on a particular segment of a subject. So good questions can show competence, and occasionally very high levels of competence.
Years ago I successfully used questions as a study technique. What I did was convert all the important statements in my notes to questions. Often one statement would require two or more questions, but in the end I would have a very large list of questions which I could get a friend to ask me. It worked very well for what I was doing at the time, but I have never done it since. The process of transforming a statement into question form is itself a powerful learning exercise.
Have you played with hypothetical questions or questions which seem impossible to answer? Much can be gained from this exercise which is often called brain-storming. Brain-storming is a wonderful ideas generator. Many problems have been solved using this technique. By the way, problems are different from questions. Questions are used to solve problems. This distinction is important.
While you are sleeping your mind is still at work. One technique I use routinely is to place a question in my mind to sleep on. In fact I often say in response to a question, "I'll sleep on it". This technique is useful for all kinds of difficult questions, but particularly for questions regarding buying decisions.
There is an ancient system of Chinese divination called the Yi Jing or I-Ching. It is said to have been written by Lao Tzu and later used by Confucius. I have been using it for many years with great success. In very simple terms it enables you to find answers to a specific question by eliciting responses from your subconscious mind that would very probably not be generated otherwise. Three of the foundational principles of the I-Ching are as follows:
1. Everything is in a constant state of change.
2. We have access to a 'universal mind' which is
all-knowing.
3. Nothing happens by accident. There is special
meaning in all corresponding happenings. Carl
Jung, a great Psychological pioneer called
this phenomenon, 'synchronicity'.
In a previous work I spoke about getting answers to questions from watching the clouds. Other methods can also be used such as looking at the patterns of residual tea leaves in a cup. or the seemingly meaningless forms of an abstract painting, and even the natural forms of a photograph or any form of graphic art. Looking at nature's shapes and forms, colours and shades can all provide triggers which elicit fascinating ideas from our sub-conscious minds.
There have been poets and writers who have done their best work under the influence of alcohol or other drugs, and we all know about the mind-blowing effects of hallucinogens like LSD for example. I would most certainly not suggest any dangerous drugs, but there is a very safe herbal medicine that I have found to be very useful in enhancing my mental ability and muscular co-ordination, while at the same time, providing a calming and sedating effect on my body as a whole. We learn more when we are relaxed. The calming effect of slow beat background music has been proven to be very beneficial in this regard.
Have you got a pendulum? If you haven't got a pendulum, you can easily make one. I have two. One is wooden and the other is a gemstone which has been shaped like a pyramid.
Years ago I met a highly intelligent lady whose academic record was very extraordinary. She carried and used her pendulim everywhere she went. In fact she always had it in her hand. She used it routinely in making buying decisions in the supermarket, deciding when or where to go or do and so on and so on. Naturally, it sparked my interest, and as a result, whilst I do not use mine very often, I have found it to be useful. There is a definite skill invoved in being able to use a pendulum effectively, and like every other skill practice is essential. Pendulum readings like I Ching readings are not a substitute for the use of our own intelligence. They are simply aids for the mind.
Qusestions are very important. The ability to ask questions is an important difference between humans and other members of the animal kingdom. As humans develop evolutionarily, their questions will become far more intelligent than they were previously. I have found that the greatest complexities in life are composed of so many simple components. It is in locating the keys that we open the doors to greater understanding. The keys to this greater understanding are the right questions.
© 2008 Denis Gibbon, Dip. Couns. & Hyp.
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Private Reply to Denis Gibbon | | Oct 09, 2009 11:50 am | | re: Questions. | # |
Kathy Munson | | That's great that you have learned from you students. Teaching can be very rewarding
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Private Reply to Kathy Munson | | Oct 09, 2009 12:53 pm | | re: re: Questions. | # | 
Ken Hilving | | Nothing happens by accident? There are no random acts?
Private Reply to Ken Hilving |  | |
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