Response to literature

Title: Teacher talk - questioning

Author(s): Chris Dawson
Journal/Article: Science Teaching in the Secondary School
Page Reference: 84-87

The main points in this reading are:

The main point of this reading is about the purposes of “questioning” in the
teaching-learning process in the classroom. Sometimes, it refers to the “teacher to
student talks” or otherwise known as a teacher-class discussion. There are two
main reasons why spoken questions are very important in science education.

1) It is a significant way of transmitting ideas into the student’s mind. Talking with
students allows a teacher to interact with his/her students and helping them to
develop their understanding.

2) Spoken questions are commonly asked by teachers to assure their students

attend, follow and understand the lesson content.

However, it is crucial to understand what type and the level of questions to ask
students. The levels are classified to these hierarchy orders:
Level 1: Recall/memory
Level 2: Comprehension
Level 3: Application
Level 4: Analysis, synthesis and evaluation.

1
The most significant statement for me personally is:
(Note: Do justify your selection)

The most significant statement for me personally is “Responding to student

answers”.

Different teachers have different ways of responding to students answers. Some

students may get the answer right or partially correct, while some may get it wrong
or have no idea at all. So, a teacher needs to think carefully on how to respond to
these answers. Some good ways of responding to wrong answers: avoid saying “no”,
that is wrong or “you are way off”. Also, avoid punishing your students if they a
wrong. Essentially, review the type and level of questions asked and then asks the
class a similar but less difficult question, without making any other comments. In
other word, break down a complex question into smaller and easier questions.
Besides, I think it is ethic to correct students if they are wrong and allow them to
try again. However, to respond to partially correct answers, provide scaffold
questions to help the class get the correct answer. It is important to show that
they are almost there and guide them to the right answers. Often praise correct
replies and challenge them with a harder question. A teacher may also allow these
right-answered students to describe how they got their answers. Overall, students
must engage in the discussion by responding to questions raised by the teacher,
rather than getting the right answer. This is one form of assessing the
understanding of your students to provide effective measures to address those
who need to improve.

2
The implications of this reading for me as a teacher of biology are:

The reading provides an insight of “questioning” in the teacher-class discussion. As

a future biology teacher, questioning students by either written or spoken is an
alternative to engage students to do the “thinking”. In other words, “questioning”
promotes critical thinking. It is pertinent that talking with students through asking
questions does not only allow students to grasp the concepts being taught but it
also allows the teacher to fully interact and engage with students. This message
reminds me to provide room for this teaching approach in my future teaching
profession, in order to effectively enable my students to develop their critical
thinking skills. The reading also depicts ways of “try to” and “try not to” when
asking questions to students. I really like these suggestions and would love to use
each in my class. For the “try to” the suggestions involve: spread questions around,
ask one question at a time, ask questions coherently, start off with simple questions
and avoid repeating questions. In contrast, the suggestions for “try not” involves
try not to select the same students every time, try not to ask too many questions
to rapidly and try not to ask confused and rambling questions. From personal
experiences, I have come across with teachers that often ask too many questions
too rapidly and the questions they asked are confusing. This will be a lesson I need
to treasure when I was sent forth to the teaching profession.

From the reading, I realized that as a teacher, it is very important to think

carefully of what level of questions you are going to ask and what strategies you
are going to use when asking students questions. I learned that when designing a
question always refer to Bloom’s taxonomy of cognitive, begins at level 1 and
followed by 2, 3 and 4.

Another implication of this reading which I considered the most significant is how
should I respond to my students’ answers. Most teachers ignore this part and never
consider the consequences. What I think is that not responding to students’
answers will discourage students from participating/responding to questions and
thus an approach of teacher-class discussion will be useless. As a biology student
teacher, I must learn how to professionally and ethically reply to my students'
answers. Some effective strategies are well explained in question 2.