An analysis of teacher questioning patterns.

Abstract

Since this study was of an analytic nature, the investigation desired primarily to examine and describe teacher questioning patterns as a function of grade level. A secondary aspect of the study was to evaluate student response patterns as related to grade level. During the fall of 1970 a workshop was conducted in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, for elementary school teachers utilizing Science-A Process Approach. Videotapes were made of the 44 teaching participants; 20 videotaped lessons were selected, at random, for assesment. Ten experimental variables were assayed by means of Instrument for the Analysis of Science Teaching and Classification of Teacher Questions. Data indicated that of the total lesson time a mean frequency of 28.6% was expended in teacher questioning in kindergarten, 17.3% in first grade, 17.3% in second grade, and 15.3% in third grade. Convergent (closed) questions of the cognitive-memory type were of the highest frequency; divergent (open) questions were of the lowest frequency. Patterns of student response paralleled teacher questioning. Wait-time was short.