Multiple choice items formatted as a question with one of four distractors giving the correct answer are a clearer and more valid way of testing the reading comprehension of foreign learners of English than is the common format in which the testee must complete a sentence stem by choosing one of four distractors. (Author/CB)

Conveys the power of children's questions and highlights the process of questioning in a whole-language classroom. Suggests that the role of questions in the classroom talk demonstrated to the teacher the connections and relationships between discourse content and discourse structure. (RS)

Presents an activity using logic mystery stories that students solve by asking yes-or-no questions. Helps students discover the reasoning behind good questioning and provides for practice with instant feedback from the teacher. Includes sample stories. (MKR)

Presents a rationale for the self-study of professional practice and illustrates how the inquiry process can help make sense of professorial practice in education. Excerpts are included from life history interviews, individual and collective reflective writing, and electronic mail exchanges to explore the role of questioning in developing…

Students' class participation can be increased by having each child display a response to each of the teacher's questions. Suggestions are given for evaluating and using pre-printed response cards and write-on response cards. Evidence for the effectiveness of response cards in increasing learning and on-task behavior is offered. (DB)

Observation of an adult literacy class and participant interviews yielded data about the teaching context, session organization, types of teacher questions, patterns of questioning, and student perceptions. Analysis using critical theory concluded that teachers may aim to establish democratic processes, but practical questioning strategies may…

Describes how teachers can rethink traditional questioning to make it a more authentic and powerful impetus to learning for students. Shows how authentic questions stimulated a six-week study of the Holocaust undertaken by a seventh-grade teacher and her students. (SR)

Presents a sample exercise developed for use in a student-driven classroom as part of a first-year, one-semester course, "Mechanisms of Biology." The approach places each student in an active role as questioner and as an intrinsic part of the course structure itself. The exercise is given on the first day of the course as a primer. (LZ)

This article provides ideas on how to conduct alumni telephone surveys: (1) use the information gathered; (2) implement a survey; (3) develop appropriate questions; (4) test a survey instrument; (5) train interviewers; (6) collect the data; (7) analyze the results; (8) report the results; and (9) use the results to take action. (MDM)

Examined children's ability to accurately monitor sources of suggested information. Age differences were found in the degree to which a misleading suggestion led subjects to believe they actually remembered seeing events that had in fact only been suggested to them. Proposes that these age differences reflect developmental differences in the…

Internal source monitoring and internal-external reality monitoring of actions were compared in kindergartners and fourth graders. Children were asked to recall actions and identify their origins. Suggests the kindergartners' decrement in source monitoring is specific to discriminating memories from highly similar sources such as between actual…

Examined whether interviewer status or a preconceived bias affects children's memory and suggestibility or adults' descriptions of children's reports. Analyses revealed children's free recall accuracy suffered when they were interviewed by biased versus unbiased strangers but not when interviewed by biased versus unbiased mothers. Exposure to the…

It is shown that, although native English speakers routinely use subject-verb-object questions for specific functions and in informal discourse, this question form rarely appears in textbooks or presentations used in English-as-a-Second-Language classrooms. Thus, language presented in these classes may not expose students to the complete range of…

Discusses reasons why patrons or librarians terminate the reference interview, including the content of the interview, interpersonal dynamics, and institutional or policy factors. Goals and objectives of the person terminating the interview are considered, and guidelines for policy development and performance improvement are offered. (30…

Describes use of the STAR (System Training for Accurate Reference) program at the Baltimore County Public Library to improve the interview skills of reference staff. The effectiveness of the program, staff training, performance evaluation, and effects of budget cuts are discussed. A sidebar summarizes STAR behaviors: open questions, verifying, and…