Middle School Math Teachers' Questioning Study

With the continuous development of society, we are showing a growing desire for talents. Schools are main places for cultivating talents, so teachers play a crucial role in cultivating of talents. Classroom is the main position for school education, while the quality of classroom teaching have a direct impact on the effect of school education, hence the levels of teachers’teaching will directly affect the development of the students. Asking questions in class by teachers is an essential link of teaching, it will reflect not only teachers’teaching level, but also the level of teachers’ cognition and thinking. As to currently widely used classification of teachers, we divide all teachers to three types:expert teacher, proficient teachers and novice teachers. There were lots of studies about the three types of teachers, which made a conclusion of characteristic and development of these teachers.Based on the theory of thinking type of classroom teaching, and the demand of this research, at first, several factors that influence teacher’s questioning in classroom were selected through literature review, qualified teachers were chosen as the subjects. After that, we recorded the teaching activities of each participant. By watching these video materials repeatedly, every teacher’s questions were transcribed into text, and then, the <questioning behavior scale of secondary school mathematics> was developed. Teachers’questions were recorded by classroom observation, the data of different types of teacher were compared and analyzed in the test of the correlation and the difference (using SPSS17.0). Then, we used textual analysis to analyze the different types of question design in the classroom. Based on the results, we attempted to analyze the classroom questioning across the board (including the implementation process and the question design), and propose some criteria of good classroom questions. Finally, we draw the following conclusions:(1) There are differences in the types of classroom questioning. According to the questions of the teacher thinking level, the expert teachers can put forward more higher cognitive problems than the skilled teachers and new teachers. Combining statistical data, and SPSS17.0correlation analysis showed that, there are much more relative between the teachers put forward higher cognitive problem and the students give higher cognitive response. The data show that the expert teachers put forward higher cognitive problems may cause students to make more cognitive responses. From the statistics about the way and the tone of the teachers’ classroom questioning, we found that the expert teachers are better at asking open questions and more adept at using challenging tone of classroom questioning than the skilled teachers and new teachers. These factors provide not only a good-quality environment for the students answering questions, but broad space for thinking, and the prerequisites for students’ effective learning and thinking development.(2) There are differences in waiting-time. The length of the waiting-time objectively reflects the degree of teachers’ patience and students’thinking, waiting-time can be divided into two parts:first and second, to distinguish the differences of teachers. We found that the expert teachers used the first and second waiting-time longer than the skilled teachers and new teachers. And the further analysis found that high cognitive problems that put forward by the expert teachers give a longer waiting-time for students.(3) There are differences on the forms of answers. Expert teachers are more inclined to ask students to answer "after posing questions" and give students more time to think; while novice teachers and proficient teachers tend to select students to answer "before posing questions", it has bad influence on the answers of students.(4) There are differences on the answers of students. The students answered the questions in more different forms when expert teachers asked questions, in addition there were significant correlations between the high-cognitive questions and the high-cognitive answers of students.(5) There are differences on the forms of feedback. In order to make students think positively expert teachers praise students in specific and diverse way, it is beneficial to conduct students to learn. Novice teachers and proficient teachers paid attentions to guide students, teacher is the leading role of classroom teaching, most teachers focused on the teaching content and teaching process rather than the students’ learning activity and the responses.There are differences in problem setting. After analyzing problem setting from different types of teachers according to the same content, we can find that the expert teachers are intellectually clear, motivated, highlighted, graded reasonable and proper. Besides, they highlighted infusing subject concepts into the principle, hence improving students’ interest in studying mathematics and ability to applying mathematic knowledge.Consequently, I proposed that mathematics teachers in secondary schools can transform their attitudes to classroom questioning and exquisitely prepare classroom questions before the class, especially highlighting essential question setting. During the class, I suggest that they can proceed step by step based on the classroom environment and put forward high quality questions. And after the class, they can reflect on the classroom questioning timely, summarizing them to manifest the value of classroom questioning.