A Study of the Effects of Hierarchically-Ordered Questioning Technique on Adolescents’ Responses to Short Stories

Abstract

The question to the teacher is like the scapel to the surgeon: it is a tool which allows access to the problem or task at hand. The use of questions comes automatically in the act of teaching, in ferretting ideas, in initiating discussions, and in focusing students' thinking. For centuries teachers have formulated questions for the direction of their students, and for decades researchers have attempted to define the nature of these questions. Evidence from previous research suggests that teachers in all academic disciplines are given to low-level, factual questions. Corey (1940) found that 71 percent of high school teachers' questions required factual information; Fahey (1942) and Gallagher (1965) discovered that teachers asked 63 percent and 61 percent memory questions, respectively, in their studies. English teachers of low ability students in the Hoetker study (1968) asked over 10 questions per minute, allowing the students only brief seconds to think and respond. Similarly, Guszak (1967) found that although elementary teachers require students to place a value on many things, they seldom ask students for their reasoning. While most of such studies are descriptive in nature, two reviewers of research on teacher questioning, Gall (1971) and Clegg (1971), have more recently reasoned that future studies need to consider what questions teachers should ask. Beisenherz and Tucker (1973) also summarize their analysis of research by suggesting the need for the development and testing of prescriptive