Students' questions play an important role in meaningful learning and scientific inquiry. They are a potential resource for both teaching and learning science. Despite the capacity of students' questions for enhancing learning, much of this potential still remains untapped. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to examine and review the existing research on students' questions and to explore ways of advancing future work into this area. The paper begins by highlighting the importance and role of students' questions from the perspectives of both the learner and the teacher. It then reviews the empirical research on students' questions, with a focus on four areas: (1) the nature and types of these questions; (2) the effects of teaching students questioning skills; (3) the relationship between students' questions and selected variables; and (4) teachers' responses to, and students' perceptions of, students' questions. Following this, some issues and implications of students' questions for classroom instru...

Students' questions: a potential resource for teaching and learning science

This study was conducted to (a) identify the types of questions that students ask during science learning, (b) explicate the role of students' questions in the knowledge construction process, particularly in educational discourse, (c) investigate the relationship between students' questions and approaches to learning and (d) discuss some emergent issues related to student questioning. Six Grade 8 students were observed during class activities, and interviewed before and after instruction about related science concepts. Students' questions included basic information (factual and procedural) questions which were typical of a surface learning approach, and wonderment (comprehension, prediction, anomaly detection, application, and planning) questions which were indicative of a deep approach. Unlike wonderment questions which stimulated the students to hypothesize, predict, thought-experiment and generate explanations, basic information questions generated little productive discussion. Problem-solving activiti...

Student-generated questions: A meaningful aspect of learning in science

Science education doctoral programs often fail to address a critical piece—the explicit attention to the preparation of future science teacher educators. In this article, we argue that, in addition to developing skills and a knowledge base for research, doctoral students must be given the opportunity to observe, practice, and reflect on the pedagogical knowledge necessary to instruct science teachers. In particular, we contend that the construct of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) can be adapted to the context of knowledge for teaching science teachers. We use the PCK construct to propose a model for the development of knowledge for teaching science teachers, grounded in our experiences as doctoral students and faculty mentors. We end by recommending a vision for doctoral preparation and a new standard to be included in the ASTE Professional Knowledge Standards for Science Teacher Educators.

/pdf/preparing-the-next-generation-of-science-teacher-educators-a-1war0h6o68.pdf

Preparing the Next Generation of Science Teacher Educators: A Model for Developing PCK for Teaching Science Teachers

Teachers' questions in the inquiry classroom not only explore and make student thinking explicit in the class but also serve to guide and scaffold it. Several studies analysing teachers' questions and their categories have been reported; however the need for a fine-grained analysis has been felt, especially in the inquiry setting. This study attempts a fine-grained analysis of the rich variety of teachers' questions and their roles in an inquiry science classroom, which are illustrated with vignettes from our classes. We present a sequential typology of teachers' questions that emerged from this empirical study, one that brings out their progression in an inquiry class. We juxtapose them with the ones asked during traditional teaching. We also examine, through teachers' self-reports, their motivations for questioning. This work leads towards a characterisation of the complex process of teaching science as an inquiry that teachers interested in moving towards more constructivist teaching practices in their...

/pdf/scaffolding-science-talk-the-role-of-teachers-questions-in-4cr7xjkmym.pdf

Scaffolding Science Talk: The role of teachers' questions in the inquiry classroom

This research investigated the impact of teacher questions, question types, and interaction patterns that coincide with high and low levels of constructivist teaching practices. Through both quantitative and qualitative methods the findings revealed that teachers facilitating classrooms with high levels of constructivist teaching practices (HLCTP) were very active as they asked a significantly greater number of questions compared to teachers facilitating classrooms with low levels of constructivists teaching practices (LLCTP). In addition, teachers facilitating with HLCTP used a significantly greater number of open‐ended questions when compared with other types of questions (closed‐ended questions and task‐oriented questions). Closed‐ended questions were found in the HLCTP classrooms as teachers were concerned with focusing students on completing investigations, but open‐ended questions were more often found with the aim of promoting student actions attuned to knowledge construction.

Teacher Questioning and Interaction Patterns in Classrooms Facilitated with Differing Levels of Constructivist Teaching Practices

/pdf/transactional-evaluation-the-right-question-at-the-right-1n5xubigov.pdf

Transactional Evaluation: The Right Question at the Right Time

This is a study which focuses on the central role of language on people's lives. It directs students to a deeper critical understanding of their own and others' use of language. It begins with an exploration of previous language experiences in the home, community, pre-college schooling, and then in higher education, professional life and civic life. The text includes explorations of popular culture and literary language.

Marvin Diogenes

Papers

Transactional Evaluation: The Right Question at the Right Time

Living Languages: Contexts for Reading and Writing

Crafting Fiction: In Theory, In Practice