A Comparative Study On Classroom Questioning Between Regular And Exemplary Lessons For Senior High School

Classroom questioning is a skillful technique for teachers to assess how well students have learned in class.It also gives students an opportunity to express themselves in class,which is beneficial to their thinking ability.So classroom questioning is an important teaching skill that is used in high frequency in class.The success of a class largely depends on whether the teacher can effectively ask questions.Many researchers have studied classroom questioning from different aspects,such as questioning strategies,types of questions,and problems in questioning.Among those studies,the author did a comparative study between the regular and exemplary lessons for senior high school.The study compares the differences and gaps between the two kinds of lessons to find problems in regular class and analyze the possible reasons.The research questions are listed as follows:1)What are the features of teachers’ classroom questioning in regular lessons in terms of type,wait time,ways of answering?2)What are the features of teachers’ classroom questioning in exemplary lessons in terms of type,wait time,ways of answering?3)Is there any difference between the exemplary class and the regular class in terms of classroom questioning? If yes,what are the differences? What are the reasons for them?Ten cases were involved in this case study.Half of them were randomly chosen from exemplary lessons on a teaching competition.The other half cases were from a senior high school in Hebei.Classroom observation and interview were employed as the research methods for data analysis.The features of questioning were categorized and compared to find the differences.Interview was conducted to find the possible reasons for the differences.The research findings show that teachers in regular class tend to ask more low-level questions to check knowledge or examine comprehension.In terms of ways of answering,the teachers in regular class prefer chorus to nominating and volunteering,which is contradictory to the exemplary lessons.The wait-time in exemplary class is a bit longer than that in regular class,indicating the weight of fostering thinking ability.The possible reason behind the result was tracked down by conducting interviews with the five teachers in regular class,followed by the suggestions to regular class.