Questioning Sequences And The Extension Of Learning Space

Teacher questions,the most prevalent teaching behavior(Sadker,Sadker,&Zittleman,2010),play a crucial role in inducing student thinking(Elder & Paul,1998;Paul & Elder,2008),and constitute a mirror to look into the effectiveness of classroom instruction(Walsh & Sattes,2005;Good & Brophy,2008).However,as observed by some scholars,teacher questions in the Chinese EFL context are generally less than satisfactory mainly due to the deficiency in critical thinking(Huang Yuanshen,1998,2010),the seeking for mere entertainment(Qin Xiubai,2012),the imbalance of elements(Shu Dingfang,2013),the lack of explicit goals(Qu Weiguo,2016),etc.In other words,teacher questions should closely correspond to the instructional objectives to ensure instructional effectiveness.A review of relevant literature reveals that language teaching researchers with an interest in teacher questions home and abroad have committed themselves to classifying teacher questions into preset categories and then looking into the functions of particular types of questions in specific or local contexts of classroom interaction.Scarce attention has been paid to how teacher questions can be designed and applied to meet instructional objectives beyond local goals.Meanwhile,educational researchers are found to be primarily concerned with the roles of teacher questions in serving broader instructional objectives.Two theoretical constructs recently put forth by educational researchers are especially enlightening for investigating how teacher questions can be designed and applied to that end.One is the concept of ‘questioning sequences' indicating that teacher questions should be designed and implemented as sequences of questions of different cognitive levels relating to particular instructional objectives(Marzano & Simms,2014).The other is the notion of ‘learning space' implicating that teacher questions should serve to open up the space for students to experience variation in the acts and contents of certain objects of learning(Marton & Tsui,2004).By the same token,language teacher questions should be designed and applied in such a way so as to involves students in different cognitive levels and language learning could not happen without their experience of variation in the acts and contents.In the light of these two theoretical constructs,a framework of questioning sequences aimed at the extension of learning space was proposed to guide EFL teachers' design and application of questions.The framework is comprised of two dimensions of variation: content focus and cognitive demand.The dimension of content focus can vary between three strands: text comprehension,language learning and personal responses.Each of the three strands can vary between three levels of cognitive demand.The comprehension questions can vary between the three levels of literal understanding,interpreting and evaluating;the language questions can vary between recognizing,categorizing and appreciating;and the response questions between articulating,elaborating and justifying.Theoretically,a questioning sequence can be formed by integrating questions of different content orientations and cognitive levels.An action research study was then designed to explore the feasibility of the framework and to improve its application in actual pedagogical practice.The whole study,consisting of three cycles of AR based on the findings of the preliminary work,was intended to address three research questions as follows:1)How can teacher questions be designed and implemented to maximize instructional effectiveness?2)How do students respond to such teacher questions?3)What are the major factors that may influence the effectiveness of such teacher questions?During the three cycles of action research,peer classroom observation,stimulated reflection,students' learning logs,after-class group discussions were exploited to evaluate the effects of the pedagogical interventions and to inform further improvements.Questioning sequences were first applied in the first cycle where the researcher collaborated with a colleague to identify the objects of learning for each unit and then designed questions accordingly and implemented them as sequences inclassroom instruction.The use of questioning sequences proved to be helpful in promoting classroom interaction,bridging the students' learning to the instructional objectives and renovating their recognition of the course objectives.In the second cycle,in response to the students' call for longer preparation time,the researcher had the students preview the text ahead of classroom instruction in reference to a hand-out of teacher questions so that they could make full preparation to answer teacher questions in class.It turned out that the effectiveness of questioning sequences was improved as data analysis showed that the students reported more benefits and were more willing to participate in classroom interaction.In the third cycle,in view of the students' unwillingness to ask questions in class and the researcher's inability to predict all possible problems confronting them,especially language problems,the researcher had them preview the text before class to raise their own questions and deliver them to the researcher so that the researcher could incorporate their questions into his teaching plan and courseware.Data analysis showed that the questioning sequences complemented by student questions were more efficient than those solely designed by the researcher in that they could cater to the students' varied needs and wants of learning and enhance their autonomy or agency.By the end of the AR,focus group interviews were conducted and students' reflection essays collected.Analysis of the data revealed that the pedagogical interventions had helped to improve the students' learning autonomy,text comprehension,critical thinking,and willingness to participate in classroom,and to renovate their recognition of the course objectives.Furthermore,the results of the reading comprehension,speaking and summary writing tests,administered before and after the three cycles of AR,showed statistically significant improvements;and the results of the reading strategies questionnaire conducted before and after the AR also demonstrated statistically significant improvement in the students' use of reading strategies to cope with the intensive reading texts.Further discussion indicated that the opening up or closing down of learning space through questioning sequences could be affected mainly by such factors as the difficulty of teacher questions,the students' varied needs of learning,the sufficiencyof students' preparation before class,the teacher's management of classroom interaction,and the teacher-student rapport.Hence,it is suggested that teachers not only design and apply questioning sequences in the light of variation in content focus and cognitive demand but also in consideration of the aforementioned factors so as to open up maximal learning space.Based on the major findings of the study,the dissertation offers implications for classroom-based action research,the use of questions in pedagogic practice,and the design of textbook questions,and points out the limitations of the action research and directions of future research.