Questioning in the Mathematics Classroom

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Questioning in the Mathematics Classroom

• Jessica Hollums
• Undergraduate Research Assistant

Mary Margaret Capraro Associate Clinical Professor
Texas AM University
Middle School Mathematics Project at Texas A M
University (part of a larger 5-year IERI grant
focused on Professional Development) with U of D
and AAAS. (NSF-IERI Grant REC-0129398 Improving
Mathematics Teaching and Achievement Through
Professional Development).
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Research

• Research Questions
• 1. Do teachers using a state-adopted
  mathematics textbook ask more questions than
  teachers using a school district framework?
• 2. Do teachers/students pose more questions
  during small group or whole group mathematics
  instruction?

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Research

• Research Questions
• 3. What types of questions do
  teachers/students ask during whole group and
  small group instruction?

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Literature Review

• It is effective questioning and rich dialogues
  that precipitate significant mathematical ideas
  between teachers and students (Thompson
  Thompson,1996).

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Teacher/student questioning

• The test of a good teacher is not how many
  questions he can ask his pupils that they will
  answer readily, but how many questions he
  inspires them to ask him which he finds it hard
  to answer (Rollins, 2006, p. ).
• Alice Wellington Rollins

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Conceptual Questioning

• Currently the emphasis of mathematics reform
  encourages teachers to focus on conceptual
  approaches to learning mathematics, however,
  research shows a lack of conceptual questioning
  in classrooms and verifies the need to improve
  teachers knowledge about the use of questions.
• (Belliveau-White, 2001)

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General Methodology

• Participants 2 middle school mathematics
  teachers in semi-rural school districts in 6th
  grade mathematics classrooms with 20 - 25
  students.
• Teacher A- follows district framework.
• Teacher B- uses the Connected Math Project
  textbook.
• Teachers were videotaped teaching matched lesson
  content.

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Matched Concepts Taught

• Measures of Central Tendency (mean, median, mode,
  and range)
• Number Improper fractions and Mixed Numbers and
  Changing Fractions to decimals.

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General Methodology

• Instrumentation
• - A video coding observation instrument was
  used to record questioning that took place during
  the lessons in both classrooms.

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Research Question 1

• Do teachers using a state-adopted mathematics
  textbook ask more questions than teachers using a
  school district framework?
• Teacher A (Framework) was compared to Teacher B
  (Textbook) on questions asked.
• Three 30-minute video clips of each teacher were
  coded which included whole and small group
  instruction.

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Results of Question 1

• Teacher and Student Questioning

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Qualitative Results

• Teacher A
• Probes for specific answers
• Revoices student answers
• Rewords the question if there is student
  misconceptions (video clip 1)
• Results could be attributed to repetition of
  questions
• Cloze strategy used consistently

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Teacher B

• Responds to student questions with a question
• Rewards students for their questions
• Repeats questions without rewording
• Uses textbook questions consistently
• Provides wait time (video 2)
• Encourages students to justify their responses

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Question 2

• Do teachers/students pose more questions during
  small group activities or whole group mathematics
  instruction?
• For this question every lesson was chunked into
  whole and small group segments. To equate time
  allocation to small and whole group lessons
  across teachers, the first 15 minutes of whole
  and small group instruction were coded. A total
  of 45 minutes were coded for whole and small
  group per teacher.

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Results of Question 2

• Small Whole Group Questioning

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Teacher A

• Teacher A
• No small group work during L1 and L2
• Students worked in pairs in L3
• Rather than addressing pairs, she questioned the
  entire class
• Most questions from both students and teachers
  were asked during whole group instruction

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Teacher B

• Majority of questions asked by teacher and
  students were during small group instruction
• Cooperative groups consisted 4 - 5 students
• Teacher visits each group multiple times
  (circulates)
• Gets more detailed during small groups and
  focuses on individual students conceptual
  understanding (video clip)

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Question 3

• What types of questions do teachers/students ask
  during whole group and small group instruction?
• All 3 lessons were examined for both teachers,
• Questions were categorized into 3 types (review,
  routine, and knowledge)
• Knowledge questions were further classified as
  factual and guiding/probing questions.

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Results of Question 3

• Question Types by T/Student

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Discussion

• Teacher B asks more unique questions than Teacher
  A due to repetition and simplification
• Teacher B relies on the textbook questions while
  Teacher A creates her own questions
• Students in Teacher A have no textbook to follow
  therefore, Teacher A repeats the same question
  more than once
• Students using worksheets appear to ask more
  routine questioning than students using the
  textbook.

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