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Sunday, November 14, 2010

More on Questioning

Lately I have been thinking more about what effective questioning will look like in my classroom.  I think this is mostly because of my experience this semester at Waukee (which I wrote about), and that teacher's method of incorporating questioning in her instruction and classroom practices.  I know that I did a previous blog post about this in my effort to uncover effective teaching methods, but lately I have been trying more to incorporate what I have been learning into my actual practice.  This is proving to be much more difficult than I imagined.

I recently read this article from the Iowa Science Teachers Journal, and agree wholeheartedly that a lot of teacher effort is required to be effective in questioning.  In addition, that in order to improve one’s practice, one should be self-reflective and assess their practice. The article continues to go into the classroom research that the author conducted, which “proved” the benefits of asking thought-provoking questions and leaving significant wait time after questions.  Since taking this science methods course, this was nothing new to me, but rather just another reinforcement of how effective questioning can positively impact the classroom.

I just finished up a math practicum in a first-grade classroom, and in anticipation of my lesson teaching at the end of the practicum, I had been trying to ask the teacher about questioning in class and some other ideas that I had.  While she was very communicative and agreed with a lot of what I was saying, her teaching was very traditional- calling on specific students, yes/no questions, and was generally very hurried in her instruction; seeming impatient when students weren’t moving fast enough or weren’t understanding.  When the time came for me to teach, I asked her to observe my questioning, student responses, etc.  Well, to sum it up, I felt defeated and frustrated.  I’m not one to give up and throw in the towel on teaching in a method that I deem to be effective, but students simply did not reply to my open-ended questions and seemed very confused by my waiting for responses. After not being too successful, I even had students talk in their groups or to the person next to them.  One student even said “this is weird.” 

While I didn’t expect my first time of what I refer to as “more conscientious teaching” to go swimmingly (I know I am far, far from perfect!), I did expect more…Was it the grade-level?  The content?  Or did my questions just suck?  I refer back to the ISTJ article and initially think, was the author at an advantage because his students were high-schoolers and he was teaching biology? As the author mentions, one way to be more reflective is to videotape yourself, which I did not do this time. However, I did discuss my performance with my practicum teacher and she offered such responses as “…it was fine, they’re just not used to that type of teaching…you’re not experienced with such young students, are you?...your questions might have been above their head…”

With that, I’m worried because I’m student teaching in first-grade next semester.  I will have the opportunity to watch myself teaching science in a 6th-grade classroom next week, but I want to be able to effectively apply what I have learned in this class across subject areas and grade levels.  Is anybody else having similar experiences?

2 comments:

  1. I am not at all surprised by the results you got. I would probably get the same results in that classroom. But it isn't because the questions are too hard, or i didn't do something right. Think about these students experience with school so far. If their teacher is "traditional" of course they are going to think what you are doing is "weird". Think about how the students in your class viewed me at first...some still see me as weird :). When I taught kids, it usually took 6-8 weeks for students to accept the new way of doing things. Now, at younger grades i don't expect it to take as long since they don't have as much experience with traditional schooling. However, they will resist anything new. Kids (like everyone else) like thinks to stay the same...to be normal...even if normal isn't what is best for them.

    Being a good teacher is about asking effective questions, considering learning theory, getting to know students and all that stuff...but there is another thing that might be just as, if not more important. Determination. You must be more determined the the students. They will see the benefit, but not for a while - this is why you are the professional...you know what makes for good learning, they know what they like. And what we like is not always what is best.

    I'm glad you had this experience and wrote about it. I hope you realize the tenacity you'll have to approach your teaching next semester, especially if your cooperating teacher is fairly traditional.

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  2. I would not worry at all about it. Like you said, your teacher used a very traditional style approach to her students learning. Asking yes/no questions and calling on students for feedback. The students probably didnt make sense of what you were asking them because it was something they were unfamiliar with. We need to be asking our students open ended questions to get them to think about their learning, that is what science inquiry is all about as well. Don't sell yourself short. Next time I would just try modeling what it looks like to the class, especially if it is a new strategy that they are unfamiliar with.

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