Open and Closed Questions Week 4

This week we were learning the skill of open and closed questions. We use both types of questions when we are mediating. We use closed questions when we want to find out simple answers at the start. We use open questions when we need to find out more information in the actual mediation.
During the introduction stage of the mediation we use these closed questions.
What is your name?
Do you agree to the four rules?
- No name calling?
- No interruptions
- Be as honest as you can.
- Try to solve the problem.
Next we use open questions like:
- What happened?
- How can we solve the problem?
As usual we played some co-operative games and at the end we used our reflective thinking skills to say what we had enjoyed, learnt and what could be improved.
Most people loved the games and enjoyed learning the new skill too. Several people felt that we could improve on the noise level. Some of it was fun noise in the games
butwe agreed to try to monitor the noise during the rest of the time.