How to ask good questions for deeper reflection

Questions are the driving force of reflection. Reflection on learning is like entering an observation deck: from this viewing platform, you have the best outlook on the landscape of learning, and your questions are the telescope that lets you zoom in on details of the volunteer’s learning journey. What kind of questions open a conversation? Which ones move a volunteer from “what happened” to “what was learned”? And what do you ask when the story is about a challenge? This article walks through different types of questions for reflective conversations with volunteers.

When did you last ask a volunteer a question that surprised you both?

And which of your questions get only one-word answers?

Questions are the driving force of reflection. Reflection on learning is like entering an observation deck. From this viewing platform, you have the best outlook on the landscape of learning. Questions are your telescope that allow you to zoom in and point out details of the volunteer’s learning journey. They bring experience into focus and turn them into valuable insights, realisations and deeper understanding.

Good starting questions invite the volunteer to share their experience. They are an easy entrance door into the conversation. You don’t want to make it too complicated. It’s not the time for deeper reflection. Not yet. It’s about kicking off the conversation asking about an observation, a memory, a highlight or a story. Those questions are easy to answer, friendly, and immediately encourage the volunteer to share their experience.

• What’s one thing you noticed recently about …?
• What is one moment that you keep thinking about?
• What was a highlight of the last weeks? What was the best part of it?

Make sure you explore various fields: work, people and relationships, everyday life, … and the volunteer’s thoughts and emotions connected to this. The first answer is never the only answer. Instead of working through a list of questions, it is often more fruitful to ask „What else?”. And wait. You will be surprised how many more answers you will get. You can vary those questions asking: What else did you notice?, Can you tell me about another moment? Or simply… Tell me about another highlight?

Story by story, the landsape of experience forms in front of tour eyes. It’s time to use the telescope and zoom into specific snippets of the landscape. Good questions that inspire deeper reflection are all about: „What have you learnt from that?” and helps the volunteer to move beyond „what happened” to „what was learned”. You may ask about insights, lessons learnt and progress they made:

• What insights and understanding have you gained?
• What have you learnt about yourself and others?
• What skill have you developed?
• What progress have you made?

Some of the volunteers stories will be about challenges they faced. Express your empathy and compassion for those difficult moments and the hard work it took them to go through them. Ask questions that shift the focus on how well they managed their challenges and explore resources that used.

• How did you manage this situation?
• How did you overcome this moment?
• What helped you? And Who helped you dealing with it?

Challenges are great opportunities for learning. Compliment your volunteers even for small steps forward and successes.

After exploring the learning insights you might want to zoom into the unknown terrain of the landscape: the future. Good questions are focussing on the next steps on learning and development in the light of their learning, including new learning opportunities and insights on success as well as mistakes.

• What would you like to learn next?
• What is your next small step?
• What is one thing you want to try?

Remember, the first answer is often not the best one. Stay put and keep asking „What else?”. This allows volunteers to go deeper, instead of jumping to another thread of thoughts. More answers equal more and often better options. And better options lead to better decisions. „What else?” is a shortcut to create new possibilities.

„Tell less and ask more. Your advice is not as good as you think it is.“ Michael Stanier Bunga

Questions are a powerful tool for reflection. They can be also invasive. Always invest in building a trustful relationship first. Show presence, listen with empathy and compassion and hold the space for the answers. Prepare a set of questions beforehand, but be also ready to drop them and follow your intuition. The real good questions come to you in the right moment and turn presence into a miracle.

Which of these questions do you use most? And which of them do you use rarely?

Pick one question you rarely use and try it in your next conversation.

How to ask good questions for reflection

This blog post above is an extended version of the Youthpass Video „How to ask good questions for reflection”. Not everything found its way into the videoscript, but the telescope metaphor is stronger in teh video 🙂

This video has been created as part of the Tuning In to learning in youth work project within Erasmus+ Youth programme. | Organiser: SALTO Training & Cooperation Resource Centre and JUGEND für Europa (German National Agency for Erasmus+ Youth, Sports and European Solidarity Corps). | Author: Michael Kimmig | Coordination: Eda Bakir | Video production: mynd GmbH