Questioning Strategies for Inquiry Teaching

Questioning Strategies for Inquiry Teaching

1. Responding strategically to student ideas

   • 1. Accepting student responses
     • acknowledging
       • teacher should refrain from evaluating students' responses. this leaves the door open for further discussion
     • repeating
       • teacher show accept a student's ideas by repeating it almost verbatim, or by paraphrasing the idea, without changing or adding to it significantly
     • reinforcing
       • is established principle of behavioural psychology that a person's tendency to display an action is dependent on events that follow the action
   • 2. Extending student responses
     • clarifying student ideas
       • to help clarify a student idea, a teacher may restate the idea in simpler terms, reorganise the idea, or perhaps summarise it
     • compare or contrast student ideas
       • teacher may extend the ideas by comparing or contrasting with two or more students make suggestions have significant similarities or differences
     • correcting student responses
       • the uncertainty among teachers about how to handle incorrect ideas & misconceptions held by students
     • applying student ideas in constructing explanations
       • applying an idea suggested by a student in building an explanation is an excellent method of extending student ideas
     • summarising group progress
       • to move the inquiry along, occasionally summarise the group's discussion & assess the various suggestions
   • 3. Probing student reponses
     • seeking clarification of ideas
       • a teacher may ask the child to clarify the response by giving more information, explaining a term used, or restating the response in other words
     • seeking justification if ideas
       • teacher asking the student to suggest means for testing or confirming a theory
     • seeking verification of ideas
       • teacher calling on the student to suggest means for testing or confirming a theory
     • asking questions based on students ideas
       • teacher takes a student response & builds a question based on

2. Questioning an essential tool for teachers

   • purposes of questions
     • Manage classroom activities
     • Discourage inattentiveness
     • Asses students’ prior knowledge
     • Develop student understanding
   • types of questions
     • Closed questions
       • single correct answer
       • Require students to think convergently
       • Focus on a single fact
       • Define a particular term
       • Use recall and observation skills
     • Open-ended question
       • Make useful contributions to a discussion
       • Require to engage broad portions or the schemas
       • Trigger divergent thinking
   • STRATEGIC QUESTIONING FOR TEACHING SCIENCE AS INQUIRY
     • Engage
       • Prior Knowledge. Ask to assess students’ prior knowledge and conceptions.
       • Initiate Inquiry. Ask questions that lead students to formulate simple questions to guide inquiry about objects, organisms, and events.
     • Explore
       • Observation. Ask questions to focus students’ thought on their observations and data.
     • Explain
       • Patterns and Relationships. Ask questions that require students to identify patterns and relationships from their data.
       • Explanations. Ask questions that require students to offer explanations of why an event took place.
     • Elaborate
       • Application. Ask questions that require students to apply new knowledge in new situations.
     • Evaluate
       • Continual Assessment. Ask questions that assess students’ knowledge, understanding, and inquiry processes.

3. Using questions to engage in inquiry

   • creating motivation & interest
     • select a scientific concept or principle from the topic to be learned
     • present an activity or situation that involve the concept or principle in an unusual or surprising way
     • formulate questions to stimulate students' thinking about the subject & set the intellectual stage for further scientific investigations
   • questioning to assess prior knowledge
   • questioning to initiate inquiry
     • questions about systems & interactions
     • questions about change
     • questions about form & function
   • questioning to guide discussion of observations
     • it teacher seek descriptions of events in an investigation
     • when group report, teacher train them to consider two kinds of questions about observational information
     • teacher want children to cosier & compare measurements
     • teacher seek descriptions of objects in a discrepant event or investigation
   • questioning to guide of explanations
     • teacher ask
       • describe to others what they did & what they found out
       • summarize their data
       • organise their data/information into tables & graphs
       • elaborate information by adding details
       • generate relationships between the new material & information already in memory
       • develop pet terns from observational data
     • questions focus on accessing knowledge & constructing explanation
       • teacher seek suggestions on scientific knowledge
       • teacher seek ideas on the possible cause of an event
   • questioning to guide of applications to new situations
     • extension of new ideas to new phenomena
     • investigating science-technology-society issues
     • making decisions & taking action

4. some considerations in questioning

   • increase wait-time
   • gradually find questioning support
   • listen to one another
   • consider cultural implications of questions
   • remember, all need stroke