A Comparative Study Of Cognitive Orientation Of Classroom Questioning Between Student Teachers And Experienced Teachers Of A High School

Classroom questioning has become a commonly-used strategy and important component of teaching,which functions to not only check students' learning situation of knowledge and stimulate their learning initiative,but also develop their cognitive ability;hence,it can be viewed as the medium between students and textbooks,and the core of effective teaching as well.In recent years,more and more attention has been paid to the research on classroom questioning,while researchers usually tend to lay emphasis on the purpose,function,means and principles of it,most of whom incline to take expert teachers as targets.Little research on the cognitive orientation of classroom questioning is conducted;what's worse,the comparative analysis between student teachers and expert teachers is scanty.Considering this situation,the author focuses on the comparative study on cognitive orientation of classroom questioning between student teachers and expert teachers,and elaborates on the results,in order to find out the differences and the reasons attributing to them,and put forward suggestions on the improvement of student teachers'questioning.Based on Bloom's Taxonomy of Education Objectives in Cognitive Domain and Vygotsky' Zone of Proximal Development,three research questions are proposed,which refer to:(1)Are there any differences in cognitive orientation of classroom questioning between student teachers and expert teachers?(2)What are the differences in cognitive orientation of classroom questioning between student teachers and expert teachers in aspects of question types,questioning response ways and questioning strategies?(3)Why do there exist differences in cognitive orientation of classroom questioning between student teachers and expert teachers?For the sake of solving the three questions,four expert teachers and 216 students from Senior High School Attached to Huazhong University of Science and Technology,as well as four student teachers from Central China Normal University,are chosen randomly as the subjects of this study.Also adopted are three research instruments,which include classroom observation and recording of eight teachers' class,questionnaire to 216 students and interview with eight teachers.Then the author analyzes the data,through the use of SPSS,in light of question types,questioning response ways and questioning strategies,finding that:(1)In terms of question types,there presents a significant difference between student teachers and expert teachers,which means expert teachers raise more high-level questions,like analysis,synthesis and evaluation questions;however,student teachers tend to raise low-level questions,including knowledge,comprehension and application questions;(2)In light of questioning response ways,there exists a significant difference between student teachers and expert teachers,which can be explained by the fact that expert teachers tend to adopt nominating and volunteering,which are good for stimulating students' active thinking;on the contrary,student teachers are inclined to distribute questions to chorus,which is not helpful with the development of students' divergent thinking;what's worse,teacher self-response still happens in student teachers' class once in a while,which is regarded as inefficient way of response,losing sight of the meaning and function of questioning;(3)In aspect of questioning strategies,the performance between student teachers and expert teachers is significantly different,which refers to the fact that the strategy of prompting and probing are utilized frequently by expert teachers,having a vital influence on cultivating and developing students' wider and deeper thinking;however,student teachers are inclined to employ such strategies as repeating translating,self-explaining,etc.,which have little difference in developing students'cognition.Based on the results of interview,three reasons attributing to the differences are summarized:(1)student teachers' laying too much emphasis on lesson plan and teaching tasks,not realizing the function of cognitive orientation of classroom questioning;(2)their lack of teaching experience and practice,resulting in their unsatisfactory performance in employing proper questions to promote students' thinking;(3)their poor understanding of the concept that teacher acts as a guide and students act as subject roles.Concerning the above analysis,the author lastly put forward four suggestions on improving student teachers' questioning ability,which encompass:(1)Transform teachers' roles to guide students to conduct active and deep thinking;(2)Balance the two types of questions and increase appropriately the number of high-level questions;(3)Select proper questioning response ways and strategies to activate students' thinking;(4)Improve questioning ability through the ways of observing expert and experienced teachers' class,reflecting on their own questioning behaviors,or participating in training programs,etc.for purpose of promoting students' cognitive ability.