A Comparative Study Of Classroom Questioning Between Novice Teachers And Expert Teachers In Senior High School

Classroom questioning is one of the important teaching means for senior high school English teachers, and it is also the main form for communication and interaction between teachers and students. In addition, it can open students’ mind, promote students’ thinking and cultivate the ability of students’ independent thinking. Different teachers adopt different classroom questioning types and strategies and the teaching effects are different. This study is from the aspect of teacher’s professional development to compare the differences between expert teachers and novice teachers on classroom questioning of English reading, so as to find some effective classroom questioning methods for novice teachers and to provide references for novice teachers in their professional development. This study concentrates on the differences in three aspects: the preparations for questioning before class, while-class questioning and the teacher’s self-reflections of questioning after class.The subjects of this study are two expert teachers and two novice teachers of senior Grade One and 272 students in Luoyang No.1 Senior High School. The students all come from the classes of these four teachers. The two expert teachers are those who have teaching experience of over ten years and have senior titles or get above city-level honors. The two novice teachers are those who have teaching experience of less than three years and have primary titles. Through classroom observation, interview and questionnaire, the research has studied the four teacher’s preparations for questioning before class, while-class questioning and the teacher’s self-reflections of questioning after class for three months. The research procedures are divided into three parts. The first part is classroom observation. This study takes two reading lessons of the four teachers for observation. The second part is the procedure of interview. The interview questions refer to the preparation for classroom questioning, questioning types, questioning strategies and answering way. The third part is the questionnaires, including students’ and teachers’. The questions designed in the questionnaire are related to the research questions of this study.Based on the data analysis from the classroom observation, interview and questionnaire, it is revealed that, in the preparations for questioning before class: 1) expert teacher is aware of the importance of classroom questioning, mostly novice teachers don’t know the importance of classroom questioning; 2) the expert teachers are more familiar with the teaching contents than the novice teachers; 3) the expert teachers know more about students’ cognitive level than novice teachers. While-class questioning: 1) In terms of questioning types: since the novice teachers are younger and the classroom atmosphere is very active. They usually raise more quantity questions than expert teachers, while the expert teachers ask more referential questions than novice teachers; 2) In terms of questioning strategies: the expert teachers prefer to use prompting and explaining strategies while novice teachers prefer to use repeating and translating strategies; 3) In terms of the answering way: the expert teachers usually use chorus and volunteering ways, but the novice teachers usually use nominating and self-answering ways; 4) In terms of the waiting time: expert teachers offer longer waiting time to students than novice teachers; 5) In terms of teachers’ feedback: both of them like to provide more positive feedback than negative feedback. But expert teachers usually provide more positive feedback with explanation and positive feedback with initiation than novice teachers; 6) In terms of correcting mistake: expert teachers usually correct students’ mistakes after they answer the questions; however, the novice teachers usually interrupt students and correct the mistake directly. About reflection after class: the expert teachers always give reflection after classroom questioning while the novice teacher seldom give reflection after classroom questioning.According to the results of the analysis, this study puts forward some suggestions for novice teachers’ classroom questioning. Novice teachers should learn more professional skills and educational theory, reinforce classroom observation of expert teachers and try to strengthen the communication with students.