Classroom climate and teacher questioning strategies: Relationship to student cognitive development

The purpose of this research was to determine if classroom climate and teacher questioning strategies have an influence on level of student cognitive development. The three null hypotheses stated that no statistically significant differences existed between classroom climate and level of student cognitive development; between teacher questioning strategies and level of student cognitive development; and between the combination of classroom climate and teacher questioning strategies and level of student cognitive development.;Thirty students, randomly selected from eight seventh and eighth grade language arts classrooms, comprised the sample. The Classroom Climate and Questioning Strategies observation instrument was used to cluster the teachers on the basis of observed frequency of climate and questioning practices. A student cognitive test was administered individually to the 15 students in the experimental group and the 15 students in the control group as a pre- and post-treatment measure of level of student cognitive development.;A one-way analysis of variance between student cognitive pretest scores indicated no significant differences in level of student cognitive development between groups at the beginning of the study. A two-way analysis between the student cognitive pretest scores and race, sex, and Cognitive Abilities Test and California Achievement Test (CAT) scores resulted in no significant differences in level of student cognitive development and the variables of race, sex, IQ, and achievement. A one-way analysis of variance on the student cognitive posttest scores, however, indicated statistically significant differences between experimental and control groups at the end of the study.;Once each semester of the school year the Classroom Climate and Questioning Strategies classroom observation instrument was used to continue to document the classroom climate and questioning practices of the eight teachers during 20-minute reading discussions. A Chi square analysis of the overall frequencies of observed practices revealed statistically significant differences between the experimental and control groups in both classroom climate and teacher questioning strategies practices. These data indicated that classroom climate and teacher questioning strategies, considered singularly or in combination, have a statistically significant positive influence on level of student cognitive development. The three null hypotheses were rejected.