Initially, many children use language with enthusiasm and apparent ease, but this lively use of language is sharply curtailed shortly after they begin school. This can be attributed to teachers' monopolizing continued discourse. A study explored the idea that increased student oral participation by more students at a higher level of thinking would…

Students' preconceptions (also called misconceptions) interfere with desired learning and resist attempts to eradicate them. By applying previous findings about misconceptions regarding the particle model for gases, a new approach was designed for teaching the subject. A "critical situation" was treated in which students in sixth and…

Reported is an investigation of: (1) the effect of teacher wait-time on science achievement; and (2) the difference in the achievement of children at the formal stage and those at the concrete stage of cognitive development. Teacher wait-time was defined as the length of the pause preceding any teacher utterance. The sample consisted of 23 intact…

The programed materials for inservice teacher education described in this document are designed to make the teacher think about questioning techniques and learn some of the principles of good questioning procedures. The program is designed as a home study course. This descriptive report provides further information on the purposes and content of…

A model is proposed for memory that stresses a distinction between episodic memory for encoded personal experience and semantic memory for abstractors and generalizations. Basically, the model holds that questions influence the nature of memory representations formed during instruction, and that memory representation controls the way in which…

This multiple case study investigated the relationship between kindergarten teachers' questions and children's responses. The classroom discussions of 4 groups of children and their teachers (all middle income level) were taped and classified into five different question and response categories. Results indicated that: (1) some teachers ask more…

The inservice self-instructional minicourse described here is intended to give teachers knowledge of and practice on using specific questioning techniques that increase students' participation and learning during class discussion. The classroom techniques include redirection, refocusing, handling incorrect responses, pausing, using higher…

Intended for preservice regular education teachers, the modules in Series III address the knowledge and skills considered essential for working directly with exceptional children. It is explained in a series overview that many of the enabling activities require contact with children in the classroom and therefore the moduels should be used in…

Suggestions are presented in this paper to help teachers improve their questioning about students' reading as one way to improve the teaching and learning of reading. The paper first outlines three areas in the teaching of reading--the symbol, comprehension, and pleasure areas--and notes that teacher questions should aim at development in all…

INITIAL WORK OF THE FAR WEST LABORATORY FOR EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT WILL BE FOCUSED UPON INSERVICE TEACHER EDUCATION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-CONTAINED INSERVICE COURSES UTILIZING MICROTEACHING. EACH OF THESE COURSES, CALLED MINICOURSES, WILL BE DIRECTED TOWARD A PARTICULAR TEACHING SKILL OR TECHNIQUE--FOR EXAMPLE, THE BASIC SKILLS…

THIS INVESTIGATION WAS CONCERNED WITH THE QUESTIONING TECHNIQUES OF ART TEACHERS AT THE FIRST-GRADE, SEVENTH-GRADE, AND COLLEGE INSTRUCTIONAL LEVELS. THESE THREE LEVELS WERE CHOSEN IN ORDER TO DETERMINE THE MAXIMUM EFFECTS OF STUDENT AGE ON TEACHER QUESTIONING. TWENTY TEACHERS, EACH AVERAGING ABOUT 7 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE, PARTICIPATED IN THE…

This report presents an evaluation of a "minicourse" in effective classroom discussion skills designed for teachers working with educationally disadvantaged children in compensatory programs. Seventeen voluntarily participating teachers received four variations of the course. They were pre and posttested on 12 questioning skills…

Despite the endorsement of problem solving by social studies educators as an important process for students to learn, research shows that most social studies teachers do not include such higher level intellectual processes in their teaching. This paper specifically deplores the lack of attention to inquiry problems. The authors suggest that social…

This report presents the results of an investigation of the Science Curriculum Improvement Study (SCIS) program and the effects of the Materials Objects unit on first-grade students and teachers. The contents of the report include purposes and limitations of the study, discussion of the instruments, observers, reliability of the Q sort, the…

The influence of question format on item responses is examined using split ballot techniques and sex-role stereotypes in a junior college sample. Two formats were used: direct, in which questions asked only about women, and comparative, in which items explicitly compared women with men. Significant differences by format occurred on seven out of…