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Brualdi Timmins, Amy C.

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Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation Volume 6 Volume 6, 1998-1999 Article 6 1998 Classroom Questions Amy C. Brualdi Timmins Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/pare Recommended Citation Brualdi Timmins, Amy C. (1998) "Classroom Questions," Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation: Vol. 6 , Article 6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7275/05rc-jd18 Available at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/pare/vol6/iss1/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact scholarworks@library.umass.edu. A peer-reviewed electronic journal.Copyright is retained by the first or sole author, who grants right of first publication to Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation. Permission is granted to distribute this article fornonprofit, educational purposes if it is copied in its entirety and the journal is credited. PARE has the right to authorize third party reproduction of this article in print, electronic anddatabase forms.Volume 6, Number 6, November, 1998 ISSN=1531-7714Classroom QuestionsAmy C. Brualdi, ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and EvaluationIn 1912, Stevens stated that approximately eighty percent of a teacher's school day was spent asking questions to students. More contemporaryresearch on teacher questioning behaviors and patterns indicate that this has not changed. Teachers today ask between 300-400 questions eachday (Leven and Long, 1981).Teachers ask questions for several reasons (from Morgan and Saxton, 1991):the act of asking questions helps teachers keep students actively involved in lessons;while answering questions, students have the opportunity to openly express their ideas and thoughts;questioning students enables other students to hear different explanations of the material by their peers;asking questions helps teachers to pace their lessons and moderate student behavior; andquestioning students helps teachers to evaluate student learning and revise their lessons as necessary.As one may deduce, questioning is one of the most popular modes of teaching. For thousands of years, teachers have known that it is possible totransfer factual knowledge and conceptual understanding through the process of asking questions. Unfortunately, although the act of askingquestions has the potential to greatly facilitate the learning process, it also has the capacity to turn a child off to learning if done incorrectly. Thepurpose of this digest is to provide teachers with information on what types of question and questioning behaviors can facilitate the learning processas well as what types of questions are ineffective.What is a Good Question?In order to teach well, it is widely believed that one must be able to question well. Asking good questions fosters interaction between the teacherand his/her students. Rosenshine (1971) found that large amounts of student-teacher interaction promotes student achievement. Thus, one cansurmise that good questions fosters student understanding. However, it is important to know that not all questions achieve this.Teachers spend most of their time asking low-level cognitive questions (Wilen, 1991). These questions concentrate on factual information that canbe memorized (ex. What year did the Civil War begin? or Who wrote Great Expectations?). It is widely believed that this type of question canlimit students by not helping them to acquire a deep, elaborate understanding of the subject matter.High-level-cognitive questions can be defined as questions that requires students to use higher order thinking or reasoning skills. By using theseskills, students do not remember only factual knowledge. Instead, they use their knowledge to problem solve, to analyze, and to evaluate. It ispopularly believed that this type of question reveals the most about whether or not a student has truly grasped a concept. This is because a studentneeds to have a deep understanding of the topic in order to answer this type of question. Teachers do not use high-level-cognitive questions withthe same amount of frequency as they do with low-level-cognitive questions. Ellis (1993) claims that many teachers do rely on low-level cognitivequestions in order to avoid a slow-paced lesson, keep the attention of the students, and maintain control of the classroom.Arends (1994) argues that many of the findings concerning the effects of using lower-level-cognitive versus higher-level-cognitive questions hasbeen inconclusive. While some studies and popular belief favor asking high-level-cognitive, other studies reveal the positive effects of asking low-level cognitive questions. Gall (1984), for example, cited that "emphasis on fact questions is more effective for promoting young disadvantagedchildren's achievement, which primarily involves mastery of basic skills; and emphasis on higher cognitive questions is more effective for students ofaverage and high ability. . ." (p. 41). Nevertheless, other studies do not reveal any difference in achievement between students whose teachers usemostly high level questions and those whose teachers ask mainly low level questions (Arends, 1994; Wilen, 1991). Therefore, although teachersshould ask a combination of low-level-cognitive and high-level-cognitive questions, they must determine the needs of their students in order toknow which sort of balance between the two types of questions needs to be made in order to foster student understanding and achievement.How to ask questions that foster student achievementIn a research review on questioning techniques, Wilen and Clegg (1986) suggest teachers employ the following research supported practices tofoster higher student achievement:Page 1 of 3 1Brualdi Timmins: Classroom QuestionsPublished by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst, 1998phrase questions clearly;ask questions of primarily an academic natureallow three to five seconds of wait time after asking a question before requesting a student's response, particularly when high-cognitive levelquestions are asked;encourage students to respond in some way to each question asked;balance responses from volunteering and nonvolunteering students;elicit a high percentage of correct responses from students and assist with incorrect responses;probe students' responses to have them clarify ideas, support a point of view, or extend their thinking;acknowledge correct responses from students and use praise specifically and discriminately. (p. 23)What is a Bad Question?When children are hesitant to admit that they do not understand a concept, teachers often try to encourage them to ask questions by assuring themthat their questions will neither be stupid or bad. Teachers frequently say that all questions have some merit and can contribute to the collectiveunderstanding of the class. However, the same theory does not apply to teachers. The content of the questions and the manner in which teachersask them determines whether or not they are effective. Some mistakes that teachers make during the question and answer process include thefollowing: asking vague questions (ex. What did you think of the story that we just read?), asking trick questions, and asking questions that may betoo abstract for children of their age (ex. asking a kindergarten class the following question: How can it be 1:00 P.M. in Connecticut but 6:00 P.M.in the United Kingdom at the same moment?)When questions such as those mentioned are asked, students will usually not know how to respond and may answer the questions incorrectly.Thus, their feelings of failure may cause them to be more hesitant to participate in class (Chuska, 1995), evoke some negative attitudes towardslearning, and hinder the creation of a supportive classroom environment.ConclusionSanders (1966) stated, "Good questions recognize the wide possibilities of thought and are built around varying forms of thinking. Good questionsare directed toward learning and evaluative thinking rather than determining what has been learned in a narrow sense" (p. ix). With this in mind,teachers must be sure that they have a clear purpose for their questions rather than just determining what knowledge is known. This type ofquestion planning results in designing questions that can expand student's knowledge and encourage them to think creatively.References and Additional ReadingsArends, R. (1994). Learning to teach. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, Inc.Bloom, B., Englehart, M., Furst, E., & Krathwohl, D. (Eds.). (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook I:Cognitive domain. New York: David McKay.Chuska, K. (1995). Improving classroom questions: A teacher's guide to increasing student motivation, participation, and higher level thinking. Bloomington, IN: PhiDelta Kappa Educational Foundation.Ellis, K. (1993). Teacher questioning behavior and student learning: What research says to teachers. (Paper presented at the 1993 Convention of the Western StatesCommunication Association, Albuquerque, New Mexico). (ERIC Document Reproduction No. 359 572).Gall, M. (1970). The use of questions in teaching. Review of Educational Research, 40, 707-721.Gall, M. (1984). Synthesis of research on teachers' questioning. Educational Leadership, 42, p. 40-47.Leven, T. and Long, R. (1981). Effective instruction. Washington, DC: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.Morgan, N., and Saxton, J. (1991). Teaching, Questioning, and Learning. New York: Routledge.Rosenshine, B. (1971). Teaching behaviors and student achievement. London: National Foundation for Educational Research in England and Wales.Sanders, N. M. (1966). Classroom questions: What kinds? New York: Harper & Row.Stevens, R. (1912). The question as a means of efficiency in instruction: A critical study of classroom practice. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University.Wilen, W. (1991). Questioning skills for teachers. What research says to the teacher. Third edition. Washington, DC: National Education Association. (ERICDocument Reproduction No. 332 983).Wilen, W. and Clegg A. (1986). Effective questions and questioning: A research review. Theory and research in social education, 14(2), p. 153-61. Descriptors: Academic Achievement; *Classroom Techniques; Discussion (Teaching Technique); Elementary Secondary Education; Learning;*Questioning Techniques; Teaching Methods; Wait TimePage 2 of 3 2Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation, Vol. 6 [1998], Art. 6https:// cholarworks.umass.edu/par /vol6/iss1/6DOI: https://doi.org/10.7275/05rc-jd18Citation: Brualdi Timmins, Amy C. (1998). Classroom questions. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 6(6). Available online:http://PAREonline.net/getvn.asp?v=6&n=6.Page 3 of 3 3Brualdi Timmins: Classroom QuestionsPublished by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst, 1998

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