| PRED 356 | Methods
of Science and Mathematics Teaching
Chapter 2: Questioning in the Classroom |
They enable us to manage the hundreds of hits and pages and files which often rise to the surface when we conduct a search and to keep only the information which is pertinent and useful. Relevancy is the primary criterion employed to determine which pieces of information are saved and which are tossed overboard. We create a "net" of questions which allows all but the most important information to slide away. Then, we illuminates the good information with the questions.
Which parts of this data are worth keeping? Will this information shed light on any of my questions? Is this information reliable? How much of this information do I need to place in my database? How can I summarize the best information and ideas? Clarification Questions
They convert fog and smog into meaning. A collection of facts and opinions does not always make sense by itself. Hits do not equal TRUTH. A mountain of information may do more to block understanding than promote it.
Defining words and concepts is central to this clarification process. For example,
What do they mean by "declining rate of increase?" How did they gather their data? Was it a reliable and valid process? Do they show the data and evidence they claim to have in support of their conclusions? Was it substantial enough to justify their conclusions? What is the sequence of ideas and how do they relate one to another? Do the ideas logically follow one from the other? How did they get to this point? Are there any questionable assumptions below the surface or at the foundation of the argument?
They focus on Ways to Make Meaning. You must switch from tool to tool and strategy to strategy while passing through unfamiliar territory. Close associated with the Planning Questions formulated early in this part. Strategic Questions arise during the actual hunting, gathering, inferring, synthesizing and ongoing questioning process. For example,
What do I do next? How can I best approach this next step?, this next challenge? this next frustration? What thinking tool is most apt to help me here? What have I done when I've been here before? What worked or didn't work? What have others tried before me?
They extend and stretch the import of what we are finding. They take the explicit and see where it might lead. They also help us to find out the implicit (unstated) meanings. For example,What does this mean? What might it mean if certain conditions and circumstances changed? How could I take this further? What is the logical next step? What is missing? What needs to be filled in? What are the implied or suggested meanings?
They are the ultimate challenge. They serve like boundary stones, helping us to tell us when we have pushed insight to its outer limits. When exploring essential questions, we may have to settle for "casting light" upon them. When wrestling with these Unanswerable Questions, we may never find Truth, but we may illuminate . . . extend the level of understanding and reduce the intensity of the darkness.
The real questions are the ones that obtrude upon your consciousness whether you like it or not, the ones that make your mind start vibrating like a jackhammer.What is 0/0? How would be the numbers in the real space and in the interval of 0 and 1 infinite?
They turn our findings inside out and upside down. They distort, modify, adjust, rearrange, alter, twist and turn the bits and pieces we have picked up along the way until we can shout "Aha!" and proclaim the discovery of something brand new.How do I make sense of these bits and pieces? What does all this information really mean? How can I rearrange what I have gathered so that some picture or new insight emerges? What needs to be eliminated or reversed or modified in order to make better sense of my findings? What is still missing?
They are meant to push, to challenge and to throw conventional wisdom off balance. Doubt, disbelief and skepticism are both outcomes and reasons of the questions. The best servants of the people must whisper unpleasant truths in the master's ear.What is the source? Is the source reliable? What's the limit of this function? Can it be inconclusive? Can be a proton dynamic? If not, is there a difference between neutron and proton?
Truth almost never appears where we might look logically. The creation of new knowledge almost always requires some wandering off course.
ExampleSuppose you explain the isosceles triangles in the classroom.
You ask to the student that what are the characteristics of a square?(You'll show the relations afterwards)
They explore territory which is "off-limits" or taboo. They challenge far more than conventional wisdom. They hold no respect for authority or institutions or myths. They leap over, under or through walls and rules and regulations.
Socrates found himself in considerable trouble for showing the youth of Athens how to ask Irreverent Questions, and we need to remember that such questions are not universally appreciated.
Example
Suppose you explain that number operation and give examples to your students.Then you ask students that can be zero plus zero other than zero?