A problem, endemic to program evaluation, centering around the inability of evaluations to produce meaningful information, is outlined. A general strategy to be utilized in responding to the problem, the ethnographic approach, is presented. The discussion of an ethnographic evaluation model focuses upon: the role of the participant observer,…

Major research on questioning has focused on the numbers and types of questions asked by teachers, the effects of teachers' questions on students, the questioning process, questioning as used in textbooks, and the questioning pattern (what the teacher does immediately after asking a question). Teachers who have few skills to utilize questioning…

Theoretical models of the reading process have been proposed by F. Smith, E. J. Gibson and H. Levin, and D. LaBerge and S. J. Samuels. These models were examined using the following questions: How are features of print processed by the brain? How important are prior knowledge and expectations to the process (top-down or bottom-up processing)? Is…

The purpose of this publication is to point out that reading comprehension questions frequently assess only literal comprehension, and to suggest kinds of questions that involve broader levels of comprehension. The publication first presents two reading passages; for each one it lists sample questions that involve only literal comprehension and…

This paper argues that provocative questions can be used by teachers to help students write. Described are a series of questions drawn from rhetorical theory, such as "How many times can I change focus so as to get the most complete understanding of a topic?""When does X occur?""Why does X occur?" and "What does X cause or prompt?" Several…

The purpose of this paper is to provide a set of criteria within a format that teachers, student teachers, and supervisors can use to better understand what inquiry is and how to evaluate the extent to which it is being incorporated into classroom activities. The evaluative criteria are organized into an instrument and are divided into the…

The Questioning Strategies Observation System (QSOS) is designed to record verbal behaviors occurring in the classroom which are associated with the teacher's use of questions. Twenty-four categories are used in three main sections: initiation of the question, response to the question, and reaction to the response. Under initiation, the categories…

The purpose of this research project was to analyze the act of questioning (i.e., the types of questions asked by teachers in class discussions) in order to discover possible patterns of inquiry exhibited by teachers. Each of the 30 participating elementary school teachers (randomly selected from the greater Wichita area) was asked to provide…

This study examined the effects of verbal and perceptual aspects of learner aptitudes in relation to inspection behavior performed while learning from written materials containing two modes of instructional content. Specific predictions were based on the theoretical consideration that requirements of different modes of instructional content were…

Fifty-eight undergraduate and graduate student volunteers participated in a factorial experiment designed to test hypotheses about the effects of two levels of information organization and four types of adjunct prequestion treatments on performance on specific amount items and two types of items organized in the same manner as the graphical…

This study was designed to explicate the nature of the processes utilized by students when learning from textual materials when the text has been augmented by interspersing questions at various points. Sixty undergraduate students were randomly assigned to one of six treatment groups. The experimental treatments were: (1) questions shortly before,…

Offered in this guide are ideas to aid program planners and discussion participants who wish to develop dialogue centered on environmental problems, particularly those issues to be considered by the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment. A background is established that Americans need to begin thinking about the international…

Provides examples of case studies on journalism law and ethics, handled in the Socratic questioning method, showing how this approach helps students to realize what legal and ethical implications they may encounter as reporters and editors. (RL)

The effects of relevant active questions, those which subjects can put alongside answers, are investigated and compared with those of active and provided questions, over a series of six presentations for both short- and long-term (ten month) situations for subjects of high and low reading ability in the intermediate grades. (RAO)

Considers carefully what might interest and engage students and uses activities and questions that will enable them to see how a topic can unfold and be dealt with in depth. (Author/RK)