ET DT

High or Low, Where do Your Questions Go?

Improving Classroom Questioning Through Self-Assessment
Dr. Shelagh Gallagher
Engaged Education CT
Charlotte, NC
sagallag1@gmail.com

Slides: www.rfwp.com
CM
Without quality instruction
curriculum is just a BOOK
Gifted students are like
experts in their
preference for inquiry

but NOT in their experience with inquiry

Questioning is the most frequently
used teaching technique in the
classroom
 Conclusion from Meta-Analysis of Research on Questioning
Davoudi & Sadeghi, 2015 English Language Teaching

• Asking higher level questions is absolutely necessary for the

development of learners’ critical thinking ability.
• In analyzing teacher questioning, the … dominant type of questioning
strategy used … address lower-level cognitive processes and have
predictable answers.
• Many teachers were incapable of asking open-ended, divergent and
convergent questions which call for in-service programs to help
teachers strengthen their classroom questioning behavior.
• In some cases, teachers’ inappropriate questions hinder critical thinking.
• Most students ask lower-level questions which address knowledge and
memory and fail to pose higher-level questions
 Byun, H., Lee, J., & Cerreto, F. (2014). Instructional Science

The impact of QUESTION DESIGNER on metacognitive skill and

specifically their performance on an ill-structured problem solving task.

• instructor-generated question prompts

• peer-generated questions
• peer-generated with the help of an instructor.

The study revealed that instructor-generated question prompts were

effective in promoting metacognitive skills and thus better
performance in ill-structured problem solving.

“providing instructor-generated question prompts

was more effective than letting students develop their own
questions, …in ill-structured problem solving”
Meta-Analysis of 20 studies on
Questioning

...gains in achievement can be expected when

higher cognitive questions assume a predominant role
during classroom instruction.

(Redfield & Rousseau, 1981)

 The QUALITY of Thinking
within A Lesson

The OPPORTUNITY to Engage

in Significant Thinking
Hilda Taba

James Gallagher

Ted Parsons
 Classroom Interaction Analysis

Teacher T A M A A A T T M A A
Student T T A T

T = Talk
A = Ask
M = Manage
Ted Parson’s Classroom Interaction Analysis

1stLevel
Look Who’s
Talking?

Tracking
EVERY
Sentence
Spoken
Ted Parson’s Classroom Interaction Analysis

1stLevel
Look Who’s
Talking?

Tracking
EVERY
Sentence
Spoken
Let’s take a Look…
2nd
Levels of Analysis
 CT

CM
4
Levels of Questions
ET

DT
 1 Cognitive
Memory
CM

The act of reproducing facts,

formula, or any remembered content
CM Teacher: What planet is closest to the sun?

Student: Mercury.

Teacher: What were some of the main points

of our discussion about mercantilism?

Student: One thing was that there was

an effort to keep a balance of trade.

Teacher: Who was the 16th president of the United States?

Student: Abraham Lincoln.

2 CT

Convergent
Thinking

The analysis and integration of given or

remembered data, leading to an expected answer
CT Convergent Thinking

Teacher: If I had $.29 and gave John seven cents how

much money what I have left?

Student: $.22

Teacher: What was the main idea in the novel

Cry the Beloved Country?

Student: The problem of Blacks and Whites in

Africa should be solved through brotherly love.
3 ET
Evaluative
Thinking

Judgment
value
and
choice
using
meaningful
criteria
ET Evaluative Thinking

Teacher: What do you think of Capt. Ahab

as a heroic figure in Moby Dick?

Student: Well he was brave, but he was

also kind of mean the way he drove the men.

Teacher: Is it likely that we

will have a hard winter?

Student: The pattern of

high pressure areas suggested that we will.
 4 Divergent
DT

Thinking

Generation of original ideas or

taking a new direction or perspective on a topic
DT Divergent Thinking

Teacher: Suppose Spain had not been defeated when

the Armada was destroyed but instead Spain had
conquered England. What would the world be like today?

Student 1: We might have fought a revolutionary war

against Spain.

Student 2: We might have a state religion.

Student 3: We would have different holidays.

DT Divergent Thinking

Teacher: How would mathematics be different if the 0

had not been invented?

Student 1: We would skip from 9 to 11 when we

counted.

Student 2: The google number wouldn’t exist.

Student 3: Addition would alway make a higher number,

it would never be the same number.
 Crea%ng(

Evalua%ng(

Analyzing(

Applying(

Understanding(

Remembering(
Divergent Thinking DT

Crea%ng(

ET Evaluative Thinking Evalua%ng(

Analyzing(
CT Convergent Thinking
Applying(

Understanding(
CM Cognitive Memory
Remembering(
Gallagher’s Productive Questioning

What
Proportion
of Each
Would You
Expect?
Draw it!
 Study
1
1 Social Studies Teacher
5 Consecutive Days
1 Hour Each
Self-Contained Classroom
of Gifted Students
 Convergent Thinking
22%

Cognitive Memory
52%
Evaluative Thinking
20%
Divergent Thinking
6%
 Study
2
10 Teachers of the Gifted
Self-Contained Classes
5 Subjects
3 Hours Each
 Classification of Teacher Questions:
Percent of Questions in Each Category

Groups Routine Cognitive Convergent Evaluative Divergent

Memory Thinking Thinking Thinking
Baker F 0 61 23 9 6
Baker S 1 59 26 8 7
Charlie F 2 54 26 6 12
Charlie S 0 76 16 3 5
Dan 0 70 21 3 6
Easy 1 65 24 5 6
Fox 1 45 50 3 1
George 1 49 45 3 3
Hat 2 55 22 15 7
Idea 2 65 16 12 6
Jack 1 54 35 8 0
King 0 52 36 11 0
 Students
Respond
Convergent Thinking
30% at
or
Below
Cognitive Memory the
59% Evaluative Thinking Level
6%
Divergent Thinking of
5% the
Question
 Relationship between
Convergent (Critical) Thinking
and
Evaluative Thinking

CT ET

Identify Applying
Criteria Criteria
 Relationship between
Convergent (Critical) Thinking
and
Evaluative Thinking

CM CT ET

Establishing Identify Applying

Foundation Criteria Criteria
 Relationship between
Convergent (Critical) Thinking
and
Evaluative Thinking

CM CT ET DT

Establishing Identify Applying

Stretch
Foundation Criteria Criteria
 Good-Bye, Bugs
Precision in Ogden Nash Attitudes Towards
Poetry War
Some insects feed on rosebuds,
And others feed on carrion.
Between them they devour the earth.
Bugs are totalitarian.
 Sequencing

CT ET CM DT
 Sequencing

DT CM CT ET
 Student 1 Student 2 Student 3

Generalization?

Explanation?

Information?
 Student 1 Student 2 Student 3

Generalization?

Explanation?

Information?
 Teachers

Follow

Students
G A L Principle

ift

sk

ather
 Principle

L ift Summary
Evaluate
Conceptualize

A sk
Compare/Contrast
Inconsistency/Error
Classify/Patterns/Themes
Perspective

Clarification

G ather Accuracy
Example
Evidence
(Infer)
 Hilda Taba, Goddess of Questioning

Four Structures for Organizing Questions

to Achieve Higher Order Thinking
Concept Development
Interpretation of Data
Application of Generalizations
Resolution of Conflict
 DISCUSSION LEADER BEHAVIOR
Asks question which focuses or refocuses students
on a task
Asks for reasons
The grid
Seeks variety, different ideas, encourages student-to-
guides you
student interaction.
to Help
look for Seeks depth through follow-up questions (asks why,
behaviors asks for consequences, …)
that either Seeks clarification or extension (examples,
help restatement, additional detail, etc.)
or hinder Asks Closed or rhetorical question (requires fact
effective answer, yet or no, no answer)
inquiry-
based Gives opinion or value judgment
instruction Hinder Does the task students were asked to do
Edits or changes a student’s idea
Rejects, ignores, or cuts off student response
 Quick Flips

Does anyone know?

Did the Americans win the war?

Is Spain in Africa?

That’s right!

Annie is right!
Let’s take a Look…
 Taba’s Research:
Students with teachers trained in
her strategies showed...

Students produced a higher number of “thought

units”

Students generated more complex thought

Lower and higher level thought were connected

Using the Cognitive Map was critical to facilitating

students’ cognitive development (1966)
Deep Dive
Improving your Questioning Practice may be the
SINGLE MOST POWERFUL
Change you can Make in your Classroom

It Costs VERY LITTLE

It requires NO new books, consumables, or computers

you WON’T sacrifice student achievement

You can start...TOMORROW

Resource:
 We find that some teachers ask surface questions that do
not take students deeper into...issues; we think of those
students as walking on a path that surrounds a beautiful
forest without ever stepping into the forest to look at the
trees. Other teachers ask questions that [probe but] do not
build carefully toward key concepts. We think of these
students as stepping in and out of the forest, catching
glimpses of trees and flowers but not learning where they
are...or how they may navigate their way through the forest.
Other teachers ask questions that target key concepts and
build carefully to enable students to find their way around.
Those students experience the forest fully--they walk
through, looking at the trees and flowers, and they also
climb some trees and look at the whole terrain, getting a
sense of where they are...the questions that teachers use to
guide students become the pathways that students walk
along and that shape their experience of the terrain.
(Boaler & Humphries, 2005)
What Path will
YOU
Take?