Brian
Thank you for your proactive suggestions and please always give your
points as they are of great value. Much appreciated
Fatma
On 22 May 2010 14:42, Brian wakeman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Fatma,
>
> Forgive me if your mail was only to Sarah........Sounds great idea........
> You could use Word Press as a blog site which is free, and where stuff can
> be uploaded.
>
>
> Regards
>
>
>
> Brian
>
> ________________________________
> From: Fatma AL_Hinai <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Sat, 22 May, 2010 4:39:57
> Subject: Re: 'Questions in the practice of mentoring'
>
> Dear Sarah
>
> I would like to ask something related to entrepreneurial education
> since you went through an experience long time ago, what do you
> suggest if we as a group create a website for this new theme( the
> content of the web, ......etc)
>
> Another thing is about the computer courses regarding entrepreneurship
> that i should take as a trainner( for the use of marketing,trade) and
> others useful
>
> Best wishes
>
> Fatma
>
> On 18 May 2010 01:05, Dianne Allen <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> Kerry, thank you for this very helpful contribution, and in the midst of
>> your very busy context.
>>
>> At this stage I cannot say that how I am thinking about questions has
>> developed into any firm 'taxonomy'. That is, in part, what I was hoping
>> to
>> explore with other mentor-coaches at this list.
>>
>> On the one hand, a taxonomy helps, by constructing some sort of framework
>> that assists memory. It also helps because the 'work' of exploring,
>> testing, and redevising the taxonomy, helps consolidate that 'way of
>> thinking', and as part of the learning process, and, in part, because it
>> insists that I be clearer about how I am understanding each of the
>> different
>> kinds of questions.
>>
>> On the other hand, once a reasonably satisfactory taxonomy is in place, it
>> tends to result in shutting off my thinking; when I 'find' another's
>> taxonomy I find it easier to 'accept on authority' or 'accept on trust as
>> representing the kind of work I would have had to have done to get to that
>> point - respect of scholarship', than to work at critique, or to try to
>> find
>> what is missing.
>>
>> Thirdly, as in most things to do with working with people, I suspect that
>> the role of the question, at any time, depends on the context, and each of
>> the kinds of questions (of a taxonomy) has the capacity to fill a couple
>> of
>> roles that might form in developing a taxonomy, and there is always the
>> times when the questioned will misunderstand a question, and yet give an
>> answer with something that is significant about their knowledge, even
>> though
>> 'technically' it doesn't answer the question. Not all 'closed' questions
>> elicit a simple 'yes', or 'no', or basic 'fact'. And some of the better,
>> open questions can be answered with a 'yes' or a 'no', or a quizzical
>> look,
>> or better still a question from the questioned, leaving the questioner to
>> start all over again (not always a bad thing, since that might be an
>> indication of something missed by the questioner).
>>
>> In another forum, a respondent described a 'question' as a 'strange
>> attractor' - once a good question is out there, in your mind, or between
>> two
>> people, etc, it keeps on attracting material to help you, singularly, or
>> both, or in company deal with the question, in some way.
>>
>> And all this reminds me, that when I was working with one of my mentees,
>> and
>> we were working on practice concerns, we were trying to think about
>> decision
>> making, good/ better/ best, and to see if there was a 'taxonomy' of
>> decision
>> making, or some diagnostic for different kinds of/ preferences in approach
>> in decision making. So far as I could see, there was none reported in the
>> literature; bringing me back to a realisation that there are some things
>> less than amendable to hard-and-fast rules. These are also some of the
>> more
>> important aspects of practice, and where what the practitioner is, as a
>> person, as a whole, and how they operate, in practice, are related. Ie.
>> practice is something more than skill.
>>
>>
>> Dianne
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kerry Jordan-Daus"
>> <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Monday, May 17, 2010 5:52 AM
>> Subject: Re: 'Questions in the practice of mentoring'
>>
>>
>> Dear all
>>
>> I am going to have a go at responding to Dianne's questions; this comes at
>> the end of a most gruelling month of Ofsted preparation and the actual
>> Ofsted week. So, inspite of the intensive inspection week (10 - 14th May),
>> I
>> have been following this seminar with great interest. Yet have not
>> actively
>> participated by sharing my thoughts. Here goes!
>>
>> 1. What was the question (round of questions)?
>>
>> That was a great activity; how can you tell that the pupils liked it so
>> much? Why do you think the pupils liked it so much?
>>
>> Can you explain to me what you were trying to get from the learners from
>> the
>> activity? How did your planned activity enable the pupils to demonstrate
>> their understanding and ability to write in the desired style?
>>
>>
>>
>> 2. What was the context of that question (round of questions)?
>>
>> These questions were being asked of a beginner teacher on the graduate
>> teacher programme. She is an acadically strong mentee. This was a lesson I
>> observed, for a mixed ability (top end) group of Year 7 (11 and 12 year
>> olds) inner London pupils. The children were being asked to write in an
>> instructional style; to task set had been to write a recipe for a
>> disgusting
>> sandwich. The children were motivated by the task set.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> 3. What were you as mentor trying to do in that question (round of
>> questions)?
>>
>> I hoped that the mentee noted how motivated the children were by her
>> chosen
>> activity (planning activities to engage the children was one of her
>> development targets) and would be able to comment on this. I hoped that
>> the
>> mentee would be able to articulate why she had chosen the "disgusting
>> sandwich" recipe idea as oposed to let us say "recipe for making toast and
>> jam"! I was trying to get the mentee to see how critical the "task" itself
>> can be as a behaviour management tool (this was the last lesson of the
>> school day AND the pupils were really focused; it was excellent to see
>> this!)
>>
>>
>>
>> 4. How were you, as a mentor, seeking to do that in the question (round of
>> questions)?
>>
>> I feel that the mentee is struggling a bit owing to the fact that she
>> feels
>> that she cannot get into the mindset of her pupils (whether they be Year
>> 7
>> or Year 11). Her own passion for her subject seems to her to be enough of
>> an
>> incentive. There doesn't appear to be a connection between her and the
>> classes that I observe her teaching. She doesn't "sell" it; act it or
>> actively try to "hook" her learners. There isn't a connection between her
>> and her classes?
>>
>>
>>
>> My questions were trying to get her to recognise what a super example she
>> had chosen BUT also delight in the fact that all the pupils were dead keen
>> and really focused and what to demonstrate their instructions/recipe for
>> the
>> REALLY disgusting sandwich.
>>
>>
>>
>> I wanted my mentee to see that she could and had got into the mindset of
>> the
>> pupils and acknowledge that the chosen task had been informed by a
>> rationale; that the rationale was informed by her "thinking" what will get
>> these kids writing last period on a Thursday afternoon.
>>
>>
>>
>> I wonder now if it is possible to analyse my questions using Dianne's
>> questioning analysis framework? I am thinking about Bloom's Taxonomy and
>> how
>> I have used this with mentors and mentees to analyse questions and how
>> questions can develop higher order thinking.
>>
>> Dianne; does your mentoring questions lend itself to some kind of
>> taxonomy?
>>
>> I hope that I am not completely off the mark with my contributions here;
>> if
>> so, put it down to Ofsted fatigue!!!
>>
>>
>> Kerry Jordan-Daus
>>
>>
>> ________________________________
>>
>> From: BERA-MENTORING-COACHING on behalf of Dianne Allen
>> Sent: Sat 5/15/2010 9:31 PM
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: 'Questions in the practice of mentoring'
>>
>>
>> Thanks Karen and Janet for your inputs and practice insights.
>>
>> As Sarah and I were engaging in planning for the May seminar, we noted
>> that
>> timing might be important, insofar as engagement happens, that there are
>> times within a calendar year that suit the email exchange, and times that
>> don't.
>>
>> Both of you have made clear that you find the kind of questions that draw
>> out from others what they already know (that is what I understand
>> "socratic
>> questioning" to be about), are most useful, and, for you, as questioners,
>> most 'surprising'.
>>
>> Further, the comment that reflective (or reflexive - and I would see a
>> difference between those two terms and I will elaborate in a minute)
>> questions, working on some critical evaluation for the student/mentee/etc,
>> of their own thinking, contributes something that is involved in
>> "generating
>> energy and suggesting that there might be possibilities and truths as yet
>> unexplored"
>>
>>
>> Reflective questioning for me has (at least) two different forms.
>> The first form is the 'mirroring' of 'reflection', and is 'You have said
>> "xxxx". [mirror back their words]. Can you elaborate some more for me on
>> "xxxx"?' Such a question draws from the mentee more detail, more words to
>> describe and encompass their thinking. It makes sure that you as
>> listener,
>> for instance, do not assume that you have understood exactly what the
>> mentee
>> is saying; that the words the mentee are using have/have not the same
>> meaning for them as those words have for you.
>>
>> The second form is the 'reflective work' of helping the mentee engage in
>> critical evaluation of their thinking. It goes something like this: What
>> do
>> you mean by 'xxxx'? (or some particular parts of 'xxxx', that you as a
>> questioner identify, and need to know, with some clarity, about, because
>> deepneding on the answer you then have more questions to ask to help you
>> and
>> the mentee be clearer about what is being said that represents the
>> mentee's
>> thinking, and might then be open to some sort of challenge, as in 'How
>> does
>> that match up with what you have said about 'zzzzz' (check for
>> consistency/coherence)?' or 'How does that relate to what the field
>> reports
>> as in 'yyyy' (check for possible substantiation or disconfirming from
>> others' research findings)?'
>>
>> For me a 'reflexive' question is helping the mentee to ask of themselves
>> something about their own practice ... it can take the form of the 'How
>> does
>> that match up with what you have said about 'zzzzz' (check for
>> consistency/coherence)?' question. ie you as listener have picked up on
>> some apparent inconsistency, and you seek to 'show' it to the mentee.
>> Another more description seeking reflexive question, working on another
>> area
>> of action response, would explore the emotion/motivation side of the
>> mentee's understanding as in: 'What did 'xxxx' make you feel like? How
>> would you have liked to have responded to 'xxxx'?
>>
>> The 'hypothetical question', which involves forward prediction, and so
>> might
>> be part of how a mentor helps a mentee engage with 'what is the
>> 'theory-in-use' that is operating around here?' can also help the mentee
>> begin to reconsider that part of their practice .. and so become
>> 'reflexive'
>> at that point.
>>
>> I have just looked back at my own list of kinds of questions that are
>> useful, that I sketched out before chasing my Dispute Resolution material.
>>
>> My top-of-my-head/ 'seat-of-my-pants' list looks like this:
>>
>>
>> For clarification
>>
>> For information
>>
>> For challenging
>>
>> For deeper investigation
>>
>> For descriptive material
>>
>> For assumptions material
>>
>> For explanatory understanding material
>>
>>
>>
>> Reviewing that again now, I would want to re-order and re-express them as
>> follows:
>>
>>
>>
>> For information (open) ; for clarification (open and closed); for
>> descriptive material (open)
>>
>>
>>
>> For descriptive material: of assumptions; of explanatory understanding
>>
>>
>>
>> For deeper investigation: by clarification; of descriptive material; of
>> assumptions; of explanatory understanding material
>>
>> For deeper investigation: by challenging; of assumptions; of explanatory
>> understanding material
>>
>>
>>
>> For challenging: of assumptions; of alternative explanatory options
>>
>>
>>
>> And I would want to add the category 'hypothetical' - for exploring the
>> implications or the mentee's theory-in-use, for/of their own thinking
>>
>>
>>
>> So, now for questions designed to take your engagement with our discussion
>> here, and to gather some more data to work with about mentors' questions
>> in
>> the mentoring context,
>>
>>
>>
>> Can you review the most recent mentoring engagement you have had, and one
>> of
>> the (rounds of) questions you asked ...
>>
>>
>>
>> What was the question (round of questions)?
>>
>> What was the context of that question (round of questions)?
>>
>> What were you as mentor trying to do in that question (round of
>> questions)?
>>
>> How were you, as a mentor, seeking to do that in the question (round of
>> questions)?
>>
>>
>>
>> Can you now share that with the readers of the list?
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>>
>>
>> Dianne
>>
>
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