Today we will focus on QUESTIONING in the context of the classroom.
For today, please begin by sitting with people you do NOT already know.
- In your small work group, create a list of the types of questions that teachers ask in their classrooms about mathematics.
- How do students typically respond to these different types of questions?
- Compare the types of questions we described to the four different categories of questions asked in mathematics classrooms identified by Hiebert and Wearne (1993).
- Our next activity will involve viewing two different classrooms. To prepare for doing focused viewing, please work with your small group to solve two problems.
- We will view snippets of two classroom interactions that were recorded as part of the recent TIMMS (Third International Mathematics and Science Study). You will be assigned to observe and record examples of one of four specific question types. To do this, let's "count off by 4's".
- You will again observe and record instances of that same type of teacher questioning, but this time in a live classroom environment. This will be a bit more difficult, because you will be a "student participant" trying to solve the problems as well as a question observer/recorder.
Shelly will act the part of the teacher as you engage the problems below.
- So what conclusions, if any, can we draw from our micro-study of questions in mathematics classrooms?
As part of the continuing development of the Lucent Grant, Riz would like to offer more opportunity for his on-site visitations. How might this be of use to you or your school team?