I love talking to people but I learn to shut up.
It's funny that if you want to really find out about anyone, you need to not talk.
If you need to find out just what you want to find out
What is your objective?
What will the information lead you to?
We are aware that we should always ask open questions, but it's also important to know that there should not be a bias in your question, that you don’t lead the interviewee towards an answer you require.
If a person does not understand your question or wants to narrow the question then you need to ask for the answer to be their understanding of the question
If you are asking a question to say a selection of your learners, for example, you want to see how a new qualification delivered is meeting the needs of your learners.
You can't ask them all, but you can take a representative sample, this is a carefully selected number of learners that meet the overall criteria of the whole number of learners.
This means any evidence obtained from the sample can be extrapolated across all the learners. Obviously, the questions need to be the same and asked using the non-bias criteria
So how do you get the best information? You shut up and let the interviewee tell you what they have to say.
If you, the interviewer, take centre stage then you are not listening and are missing a real chance to get valuable information
It is found that during job interviews there is a 60/40 split between the interviewer and the interviewee talking, with the interviewer being the 60%.
We need to just stop talking when we want to learn from others