Getting Students Talking (Video 4)

Presenter:
What’s the best way to encourage students to ask questions, and why should they ask questions anyway? Let’s hear from some staff.

Lecturer (School of Nursing and Midwifery, QUT):
We encourage students when they’re asking questions to be brave - that they think about their English language and what they want to say before they launch in. But it’s mostly practise and having confidence and instilling into them the confidence to ask the question - that’s really the essence I think.

Lecturer (School of Nursing and Midwifery, QUT):
To encourage students to ask questions is quite a difficult thing, because in many of their cultures it’s not something they would do. I found, really, that often by giving examples from myself, so if I was unsure of a situation this is what I would do and this is how I would ask a question and they’re often quite surprised that I would do that, it’s just sort of giving them permission to say it’s alright to ask questions, everybody needs to ask questions.

Lecturer (School of Nursing and Midwifery, QUT):
Encouraging students to ask questions can be difficult depending on their cultural background on whether questioning is encouraged - even allowed - in the environment that they come from. So for some students this is not a problem, they just need to be given permission to ask questions and it’s as simple as “I need you to ask me questions about this everyday or every time you come across this situation”. If you are making it a request of what you need from them, often that will work. Where it becomes a little bit more complex is where the roles in our healthcare system differ to what they have experienced before, or what is culturally acceptable for them. Sometimes you need to do a bit of detective work, in finding out what is the norm for them and talking around the consequences of not taking those actions, not asking those questions.

Lecturer (School of Nursing and Midwifery, QUT):
To me, communication is the key, the absolute key to everything they need to do. So we all need to communicate well, and I don’t care how many questions they ask as long as they ask me questions.