Thank you to: Tia and Chris, who correctly identified the level (s) of learning (Comprehension and Application) and the learning style(s) satisfied by a Game: (actually,any and/or all of them, depending upon the game). Their one-minute technique has been mailed to them.
There are many different experiential training methods that ensure a rich learning experience. Today, we will discuss the Questionnaire.
What: A questionnaire asks questions that focus the learners on the specific content that they need to know.
When: It can be used at the beginning of a lesson as the organizing principle or to identify learner knowledge and understanding.
It can also be used at the end of a lesson to evaluate learning.
Why: It is intended to focus the learners on significant information and allow them to interact with the information.
How: A questionnaire can be used to introduce concepts or information, initiate group discussion, or test learning.
The questions need to be clearly stated, with yes/no, true/false, or agree/ disagree response options.
Individual participants can be asked to complete the questionnaire and/or discuss their answers in a small or large group. The trainer can read the questions and ask the participants to signal their responses (thumbs up, down, or to the side).
It can be used as a pre- or post-workshop assessment device.
It can also be used to introduce the workshop content, which is then organized in sequence with the questions. The response to each question can be the content of a separate training module. In this usage, it is important that the sequence of questions follow a building block approach to the content.
However it is used, the trainer must give definite answers and the rationale for the answers to provide appropriate closure.
Length: Approximately one to four minutes of group discussion for each question. The same approximate amount of time for small group reports to the larger group.
Benefits: A questionnaire can:
- present technical information in a more interactive fashion than a lecture provides.
- give the learners immediate feedback regarding what they know and what they do not know.
- give the trainer important diagnostic information about the knowledge or skills possessed by the learners.
- help the trainer avoid teaching content that the learners already possess.
- generate group discussion of real life examples that can increase learning retention.
Level of Learning: Knowledge, Comprehension
Learning Styles: Aural, visual, print, interactive, haptic, and even kinesthetic if a thumbs up or down response is used.
Next week, we will explore another experiential training method: the case study.