Maintains that investigations of abuse of children in group care settings rely heavily on ex post facto interviewing of children and staff. Describes the role of the child advocate, or ombudsmen, in guaranteeing children's rights in the treatment center. Discusses indices of plausibility as the basis for reliable inferences in the absence of…

Discusses uncertainty measurement in reference queries and proposes an optimal questioning strategy (OQS) to reduce uncertainty and to measure the amount of information contained in reference queries. Information exchange between librarians and patrons is discussed, distinctions between vagueness and ambiguity are explained, and an example using…

In 1992, the Current Population Survey changed the question regarding educational attainment to ask for highest level completed and offers more possible responses. The old format tended to misclassify years of schooling, made it impossible to identify specific degrees, and led to uncertainty in high school graduate classification. (JOW)

Argues that educators should provide students with explicit training in asking critical questions. Describes a training strategy taught in abnormal psychology courses at Bowling Green State University (Ohio). Based on a pre- and post-test, results support the promise of using explicit questioning training in promoting the evaluative aspects of…

Development officers at DePauw University (Indiana) use a structured, five-section, face-to-face interview process to assess prospective donors' ability to give and interest in giving, which then determines how the institution offers them the opportunity to support it. A step-by-step outline of the interview process is provided, as are answers to…

Many cherished school curriculum units are intellectually weak and fragmented because of confusion about what students are supposed to learn. A key component missing from curriculum design is the guiding question--the fundamental query directing the search for understanding. Such questions are neither leading nor generic but are succinct,…

Describes a model for counseling cancer patients that integrates the unique features of the cancer experience within a basic counseling framework. It combines a nine-step problem-solving approach with a biopsychosocial perspective, placing greater emphasis on the person than the problem. Utilizes innovative questioning techniques and strategies.…

A study compared how well 31 children (ages 11-12) with mental retardation, 19 age-matched (CA) children, and 21 mental-age (MA) matched children were able to recall a staged event one day later. Children with mental retardation were more suggestible in response to closed misleading questions than were CA children. (Contains references.)…

This article reviews research on positive and negative effects of verbally or mentally rehearsing a memory of an abuse incidence on the length, accuracy, and structure of children's reports of a particular incident. Implications for interviewing children in sexual abuse investigations are discussed and a set of recommendations is provided.…

Questions are so much a part of the classroom routine and they should stimulate learning and thinking. Introduces the Questioning and Understanding to Improve Learning and Thinking (QUILT) method which incorporates Bloom's Taxonomy and wait time. (ASK)

This classroom activity demonstrates the importance of question wording on surveys. In the activity, students compared data from 2 versions of a short questionnaire that differed only in the wording of the questions and the response scales. Class discussion focused on how wording affected the data and, consequently, how difficult it would be to…

Information literacy standards for student learning, indicators for student performance, and hundreds of collaborative lesson plans around the country give some indication of the skills students are expected to master as effective and efficient users of information. Hopefully the goal is that all involved in information literacy education become…

The authors examined the impact of elaborative interrogation on knowledge construction during expository text reading, specifically, the interactions among elaborative interrogation, knowledge, and interest. Three measures of learning were taken: recall, inference, and coherence. Elaborative interrogation affected all aspects of learning measured,…

During inquiry activities, teachers need to ensure their students are making progress toward learning goals. The informative questioning cycle can help teachers and students achieve these goals through simple techniques that can redirect and improve the quality of students' learning while it is in progress. The informative questioning cycle…

In this article, the author discusses the importance of questioning in understanding teaching practice and the possibilities of inquiry in English education. The author has come to believe that the most important thing everyone can do in the field of English education is to support teachers in establishing a questioning stance that will evolve…