The role of questions in the physics laboratory classes of two non-native speaking teaching assistants

Questions play an important role in science laboratory classes. This conclusion was reached following several observations of science and engineering labs at Iowa State University. Almost all interactions involved questions, and some dialogs seemed to contain even more questions than statements. The students and teaching assistants asked each other an impressive number of questions in various forms and for various reasons. This case study of two introductory physics labs is an outgrowth of observations made for the Graduate College at ISU. It focuses on the questions asked by the international teaching assistants (IT As) in charge of the labs as well as those asked by their students. Some situations and student attitudes that ITAs might encounter in the laboratory classroom will also be touched upon