This week the Global Affairs Fellows learned and practiced the Question Formulation Technique adopted by the Right Question Institute. This process was centered around 4 critical rules to formulating questions:
- Ask as many questions as you can.
- Do not stop to discuss, judge, or answer the questions.
- Write down every question exactly as it is stated.
- Change any statement into a question.
To put this process into practice, we split into groups of two and each group was assigned a country and a respective set of pictures. Each photo set displayed recent COVID protests. One group member was tasked to write down all the questions on a google doc while the other member stated as many questions or ideas they could think of in 5 minutes that related to the photos. Afterwards, each group reflected on which questions were closed and which were open.
Each group then picked 3 of their questions to research and answer. Then the groups created a powerpoint to present their findings and pictures. The following class, each group presented their powerpoints, explained the background on the protest, and answered their 3 questions. With the following class time, we debriefed the recent election for governor and met with our project groups for any recent updates.
~ Alden Roberts ‘23