Chapter 7

This chapter talks about how teachers can effectively use questioning to do things like shift the focus from observation to explanation, encourage creativity, and develop student understanding. This first thing I found interesting in this chapter was when it explained that discourse is expressing one’s own questions, observations, and meaning making and listening to and reflecting on the ideas of others. This to me sounds like something every effective science class should have. Because questioning can help promote discourse, questioning is something that definitely must have importance and value to effective teachers.

The chapter goes on to explain the difference between open-ended questions and closed questions, which are both important to promoting new learning. Closed questions have a single correct answer which causes students to recall facts and observations, while open-ended questions can be answered numerous ways and get students to engage in broad portions of their schemas and make useful contributions to a discussion. I personally value open-ended and divergent thinking not only as a prospective teacher, but as a student as well because I prefer to work towards answers or conclusions using logical concepts rather than simply recalling facts or being told the answer. I was glad to see that the text recommends increasing the percentage of open-ended questions as a way to increase divergent productivity, since it promotes higher levels of thinking and stimulates further discussion. As a teacher I definitely want to ask lots of open-ended questions, but I feel that as a student teacher it might be hard to use them if students are used to always being asked closed questions. I feel that students might be reluctant to give answers in fear of being wrong or wont give further answers once one of their classmates gives one.

Another thing I liked about this chapter is when it talks about using questions to intrinsically motivate students to pursue a learning task. It is no mystery that students or any person will be more engaged in an activity or interested in something that is intrinsically motivating. The chapter suggests using novel or discrepant events such as hands-on activities or visual aids or explanations to help motivate students. Many of the activity demonstrations we have been doing have been discrepant events aimed towards getting students engaged and motivated. The text also says that discrepant events are a better way to find out students’ prior knowledge than simply asking. This makes sense to me because students may have knowledge about concepts, but wont be able to show that knowledge unless they use them in real contexts, instead of questions with technical terms they may be unfamiliar with. I like that the text says teachers should not seek closure on a question until a number or responses have accumulated. This was always something I have valued in teachers as a student myself. Just because students didn’t raise their hands fast enough doesn’t mean their ideas or opinions should be kept from the rest of the class. Another thing this chapter suggests is to let students decide what they want to know about the results of an investigation. I think that this would be another great way to increase intrinsic motivation.

The last thing I liked in this chapter was the ways it suggested teachers should respond to student ideas. I think reinforcing students’ responses is a good way to get students to keep responding when they may typically be reluctant to. I used to never participate in class because I was very afraid of being wrong, even though what I was thinking was usually the right answer. One thing I think I will need practice with is extending student responses. Organizing, clarifying, and connecting students’ responses on the spot seems like a skill that will develop through teaching over time.