This article examines how question-answer sequences are constructed in primary school instructional activities. The interaction between teacher and students in two 3rd-year groups is analyzed using a conversation-analytic approach. Four questioning patterns--"yes-no, alternative, wh-questions", and a "non-interrogative format" very frequently used…

A funny thing happened in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on the way to passing a $46 million school bond during the 2000-01 school year. Through the use of a scientific telephone survey, school district officials determined residents were more than happy to upgrade their school libraries, but were significantly more tight-fisted when it came to improving…

Multiple choice questions are a common method of assessing student understanding. In this article, the authors discuss and evaluate a student-focused collaborative learning strategy for working with such questions that results in greater student learning and allows instructors to better understand student thinking and ultimately to write better…

From a very young age, children actively strive to make sense of their world through constant questioning. The ability to ask questions comes naturally for young children, but such natural inclination does not continue because it teachers who ask most of the questions. Sheena Hervey suggests that teaching students how to pose questions is a…

This study investigated the influence of question repetition and question type (answerable, unanswerable, or opinion seeking) on children's recall. A total of 136 children (5-, 7-, and 9-year-olds) watched a live 15-min presentation. One week later, the children were asked 20 questions that were repeated an additional two times within the…

Most teachers are well aware that verbal questioning can aid student learning. Asking questions can stimulate students to think about the content being studied; connect it to prior knowledge consider its meanings and implications; and explore its applications. A common problem with many teachers' use of verbal questioning is a lack of knowledge…

Increasingly, teaching assistants and parents are engaging with children across the curriculum in group-led activities. However, whereas in literacy and numeracy the outcome of activities is predetermined and the same objectives and teaching points are reinforced over a week or a fortnight, in science things can be very different. Helpers often…

ver the course of 3 months but then remaining constant out to the final interview at 6 months. As expected, older children provided more total information than younger children did and reported a greater proportion of the event components in response to general rather than specific questions. However, comparable patterns of remembering and…

Teachers often tell their classes that "there is no such thing as a stupid question." But this is not completely honest. Questions aren't asked in a vacuum; their intelligence or stupidity depends on a variety of contextual variables. The ideal question is the right one, posed to the right source in the right way at the right time for the right…

This study explored the use of focused stimulation as an intervention technique for a three-year-old boy diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). His parents were trained to use focused stimulation to facilitate comprehension of "what is x doing" question forms. Responses to question probes were collected at both pre- and post-treatment…

In recent years, a growing political emphasis has been placed upon the development of transformative assessment-driven reform in schools. There is global consensus on the value of assessment activities that are carefully designed to be consistent with desired learning outcomes, and which coherently connect learning theory, the curriculum,…

This study examined the features of the classroom discourse in eight Algebra I classes from two urban high schools with diverse student populations. In particular, by using the discursive analysis perspective, the type of communication between teachers and students was examined. The study investigated to what extent teachers' patterns of discourse…

In most teacher education courses, instructional strategies are merely listed and explained. Students rarely have the opportunity to see these strategies in use until they become student teachers. What better way to teach secondary instructional strategies to pre-service teachers than by modeling these strategies using teacher education content?…

This study was an empirical investigation of active student responding (ASR) utilizing a student response system (SRS) vs. single student questioning (SSQ) and no student responding in a graduate level special education class of 23 participants. During the SRS condition, every participant responded to questions using remotes/clickers. During the…

Drawing on data associated with an investigation of classroom read alouds and discussions of children's literature, this article conceptualizes the reading aloud and discussions of picturebooks as an "interpretive space" for elementary grade students' exploration of visual images and written text. Analyzing the types of responses…