Opening up the dialogic space. Using questions to facilitate deeper informal learning

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to provide anyone working with visitors to informal learning settings with knowledge and ideas to provide high quality learning experiences through better social interactions using questioning. Questions can be between learners and any number of adults. One of the key attributes of good teaching and learning is being able to ask the right question at the right time, something that the best teachers do regularly. Good questions come from listening to learners to provide further points in dialogue that challenge thinking and promote deeper learning. In informal learning spaces such as museums and galleries the challenge, for people not trained and experienced as teachers, is to interact with learners without reproducing the formalities of the classroom. Providing worksheets of questions can deaden the experience and excitement of learners and might limit meaningful and free exploration. What is needed are careful strategies, sympathetic to informal learning environments, but capable of stimulating the sort of ‘breakthrough behaviours’ that lead to deeper learning. In this chapter we discuss research on what makes oral questioning and in written text most productive and how this can be applied to informal settings. Several examples, used in museums and galleries, to help museum staff, docents, volunteers and teaching assistants interact with learners more productively, to better question artefacts and exhibits, and interact with each other are shown and discussed.