question the questions

7/29/2019 Question the Questions

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QUESTIONINGthe QUESTIONSBy Christopher H. Tienken, Stephanie Goldberg,and Dominic DiRoccoFrom Kappa Delta Pi Record

H ISTORICAL accounts ofquestioning used in the edu-cation process trace back to*Socrates. One of the best examplesof his use of questioning is found inPlato's The Republic. Socrates useda series of strategic questions tohelp his student Glaucon come tounderstand the concept of justice.Socrates purposefully posed a se-ries of questions to help Glauconreflect and think critically aboutthe subject and eventually cometo a new understanding of justice.This way of questioning becameknown as the Socratic Method.Today, teachers still use ques-tions as one way to help studentsdevelop productive thinking skillsand to understand concepts andtopics. Ouestioning, in fact, may be

the most frequently used teacherinstructional,intervention. A 1981study reported that teachers askas many as 300-400 questionsdaily. That represents thousands ofopportunities to develop students'productive thinking during theschool year.To what extent do teacherstake advantage of this immenseopportunity? And what types ofquestions do teachers ask mostfrequently?We sought to investigate thefrequency that teachers used pro-ductive questions in their les-sons, then synthesized question-ing strategies Pre-K-12 teacherscan implement consistently toprovide students with opportu-nities for productive thinking.

Christopher H. Tienken is an assistant professor at Seton Ha lt University,NJ, in the Coilege of Education and HumanServices, Department of EducationLeadership, Management, and Policy. Stephanie Goidberg is a staff develop-ment coordinator forthe M onroe Township School District, Middlesex County,NJ. Dominic DiRocco is the director of legislative affairs for the New JerseyAssociation of Counties. Condensed,with perm ission, from Kappa Delta Pi


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Questioning the QuestionsIn our study, we focused on onepart of the questioning realm: thecognitive disposition of questions

asked to or directed at students..We accept that there exists a dif-ference in cognitive processes be-tween questions .that elicit remem-bering or imitative thinking on thepart of students and questions thatprompt creative, critical, or pro-ductive thinking. For the purposeof this study, we categorized ques-tions as either productive (analysis,synthesis, evaluation categories,also known as higher order} or re-productive (recall, comprehension,application categories, also knownas lower order).Productive questions providestudents the opportunity to create,analyze, or evaluate. These ques-tions are frequently open-endedand divergent in nature. An exam-ple from 10th grade U.S. history is:"Based on your study of the UnitedStates Constitution, hoW does thenew Iraqi constitution compare interms of comprehensiveness, andwhat recomm endations would yourecommend for its iinprovementand why?" Reproductive questionsprompt students to imitate, recall,or apply knowledge and informa-tion taught by the teacher, througha mimicked process. An examplefrom the same history class: "Whatright does the First Amendmentof the United States Constitutionprotect?" Reproductive questionsare typically convergent and have

Literature on QuestioningMany factors influence the ef-fectiveness of teacher questionson student learning (e.g., wait time,sociolinguistics, learning environ-ment). Our review of the literaturefocused on studies that investi-gated the influence of questioningon student achievement, not thecontextual factors involved withthe process.Support for the positive influ-ence of productive questioningon student achievement exists.Several studies and meta-analysesconducted in the 1980s and '90sreported positive influences ofproductive, higher-order questionson student achievement. The influ-ences on achievement ranged from12 to 27 percentile points gainedon commercially prepared, norm-referenced, standardized tests bystudents whose teachers consis-tently used productive questionscompared with students whoseteachers did not regularly use suchquestions.The literature related to thefrequency with which teachers useproductive and reproductive ques-tions troubles us. It was reportedthat the majority of teacher ques-tions fell into the reproductive cat-egory, 60-79% respectively. Thatmeans up to 14,400 of the 18,000questions asked by teachers eachyear do not provide opportunitiesfor productive thinking.The implication for student


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THE EDUCATION DIGEST

ment requires attention. Intuitively,providing students with frequentopportunities to think divergentlyand critically should have a posi-tive influence on cognitive devel-opment and achievement.How else can students learn toattack and grapple with authenticproblems and situations? Wherewill they learn how to think di-vergently and how to'strategizeif educators do not facilitate thattype of cognitive growth in theclassroom?

The StudyDuring the 2001 to 2007 schoolyears, we collected data from 98certified teachers in grades 3-12in. 13 schools in New York and NewJersey on the frequency with whichteachers asked productive (higherorder) questions and reproductive(lower order) questions. The ma-jority of teachers observed, 60/98,had four or more years of teachingexperience (experienced); andthe remaining 38/98 teachers hadfewer than four years of experi-ence (novice). The total numberof questions observed and catego-rized was 2,363. We were awareof the role that context played in 'categorizing a question as produc-tive or reproductive and took thatinto account when collecting andanalyzing the data.

Results

ers, as well as formal courseworkin teacher education programs, themajority of teacher questions, 76%,remained reproductive.The data suggested a differ-ence between the frequency ofproductive questions asked byexperienced teachers and noviceteachers. Productive questions ac-counted for 32% of the total ques-tions asked by experienced teach-ers and 15% of the total questionsasked by novice teachers. We usedthe non-parametric Chi-squareto measure the difference in thefrequency that novice and experi-enced teachers asked productiveand reproductive questions.

'The differences were statisti-cally significant. Thisfindingmayseem counterintuitive to thosewho prepare pre-service teachers,because every teaching methodsbook has a section on effectivequestioning techniques. Nonethe-less, our statistics revealed thatnovice teachers in our sampleasked significantly fewer produc-tive questions.Readers piay jump to the con-clusion that experienced teachersdo a much better job of askingproductive questions. However, aseducators, we must ask ourselves:Is 32% an acceptable percentageof productive questions? Readersalso must be cognizant that stu-dents are highly unlikely to have allexperienced teachers during their


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Questioning the Questions

by most students reflects a mix ofnovice and experienced teachers.Improving PracticeThe knowledge base regard-ing the influence and effect ofproductive questions on studentachievement suggests that theintervention is a positive one.Unfortunately, the results of thisstudy and others before it sug-gested that teachers do not take

full advantage of questioning'spotential. The obvious solutionto this problem is for teachers toask more productive questionsduring their lessons. But howshould school leaders and otherswho support and prepare teachersfoster that practice? Perhaps edu-cators need to look at a professionthat relies on questioningthe lawprofession is built upon strategicquestioning.Both lawyers and. teachers aremore successful in their respectiveprofessions when they ask qualityquestions. Lawyers ask questionseither to.elicit information thatassists them in the representationof their clients or to prevent therevelation of information that isadverse to the interests of theirclients. While lawyers ask primar-ily reproductive questions, thepoint is that they preparepriorto entering the courtroomthequestions they are going to ask.Lawyers enter the courtroom witha questioning strategy, aimed at

preparation is where educatorscan benefit most. Let us examinethe manner in which lawyers pre-pare to ask questions.Productive questions are moredifficult to generate in the heat ofthe moment when teaching. Per-haps that is one explanation forthe low frequency of productivequestions asked in classrooms.Lawyers treat their questioningstrategy as akin to cartography.Just as a cartographer plots out ona map the route to a destination,attorneys develop a sequence ofquestions, ahead of time, to -leadtheir clients to the desired point inthe examination. Like lawyers andcartographers, teachers need toplan a route and strategy in orderto use questions productively anddevelop students' thinking basedon the learning objectives for theirlessons. Just as a lawyer would notask questions aimlessly or withouta strategic purpose or vision of thebig picture, teachers should notleave to chance the developmentof student critical thinking.

Teachers can prepare a list ofquestions prior to starting a les-son. Question preparation guaran-tees that some questions will fosterproductive thinking. Teachers mayask, "What about the teachablemoment?" We do not recommendscripting the entire lesson. There isa place for the teachable momentand the unplanned questions thatgo along with it. However, that


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THE EDUCATION DIGEST

still must plan carefully to achievethe original goal of the lesson. Wesuggest that teachers script 10-15productive questions for an aver-age lesson. Doing so will ensurethat approximately 50% or moreof the questions will foster produc-tive thoughta vast improvementover current practice.Strategies for Imp rovementAfter preparing productivequestions and struc tures for theirappropriate use, the next challengeis to ensure that all students havethe opportunity to participate.Teachers can use several strate-gies to increase the number ofstudents responding to productivequestions.

The use of overt participationstrategies likely will engage morestudents to think, formulate opin-ions, and construct new knowledgewhen the teacher asks a productivequestion. For example, signaledresponse is an overt participationtechnique in which students mustcommunicate their answers tothe teacher in a nonverbal way, Ateacher poses a productive ques-tion to the class and asks a studentto respond. Then, the teacher di-rects the rest of the class to signalif they agree with the response ordisagree or have something else tooffer. Students know beforehandthat everyone must participatein every question. The teacherfollows up with a random sample

must answer orally. Another overtparticipation technique is the useof choral response. While somestudents may choose not to partic-ipate, the strength of the responsecan indicate accuracy and comfortwith the material. In this case, theclass responds together after theteacher poses a question.

Another effective strategy isthink-pair-share. After the teacherasks a question, students takea minute or two to think abouttheir responses. Then they turnto a partner and share ideas withone another. After a few minutes,the teacher randomly samplesthe class for responses. All of thestrategies just described can serveas vehicles to promote productivethought among ali students, ratherthan one at a time as with tradi-tional questioning patterns.

SummaryAsking more productive ques-tions while using overt partici-pation strategies enhances thecognitive environment in the class-room. The stakes are too high andconsequences too severe to acceptreproductive questioning patternsas the norm for our teaching. Prob-lem-solving and critical thinkingare skills that need to be cultivatedand nurtured. All students havea right to high-quality cognitivedevelopment, and educators havethe responsibility to provide theinstruction and opportunities to


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