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My experience is if you ask “do you understand/have you understood this” the vast majority of people will respond “yes” because they do t want to appear stupid or are unable to admit they didn’t understand or don’t want to tell me that my explanation has been inadequate.
Agreed, but it's then very much their fault and your conscience is clear.
Brun-
When teaching in a group scenario the closed “have you understood” question is a quick way to get an affirmative response. My conscience wouldn’t be clear as I know that the question is poor and doesn’t guarantee understanding. Very few people are emotionally resilient or robust enough to admit they don’t understand publicly. It is dangerous for me to assume my explanation has been clear and unambiguous.
My role as an instructor/trainer/mentor is not being delivered when I am asking questions which are this poorly formed. Also I can’t assume someone has understood or been paying attention. My role is to hopefully elicit understanding so asking participants to explain things back, ideally in their own words helps me gain clarity as to have I communicated effectively.
It is the role of the communicator to communicate in a manner that the recipient can understand.
dancing james
My experience is if you ask “do you understand/have you understood this” the vast majority of people will respond “yes” because they do t want to appear stupid or are unable to admit they didn’t understand or don’t want to tell me that my explanation has been inadequate.
Asking “what have you learned/ what do yo understand” is a much more effective question as I can then verify if they have received my intended communication.