Although the findings on teachers’ purposes in asking questions were discussed in the previous section, the discussion in this section will examine the extent to which open and closed questions were used for each question purpose. According to this study’s aim, research question 2 was: “How do these understandings relate to open and closed questions?” Many researchers (Mercer and Littleton, 2007; Alexander, 2008) have suggested that the use of “open questions” may lead to classroom interaction between the teachers and the students and that helps promote learning.
One of this current study’s findings was that, of the eleven purposes, the highest percentages in purposes in asking questions was “checking prior knowledge” (approximately 22%), as 19% were classed to be in the form of open questions and 81% were closed (see Table 4.5). This high percentage of closed questions was due to the fact that this purpose requires factual information on how much children know about teaching topics. In contrast, the findings show that the purpose of “hypothesizing“ was composed of only open questions, which is because these questions require speculation. These findings support Newton’s concept of “focused questions” which means that “It is not a matter of one kind of question being better than another but of recognising which kind is needed and knowing how to use it to good effect” (Newton, 2013, p. 11, original emphasis).
This current study found that 18 of the 74 teachers’ questions (approximately 24%) in early primary classrooms were open questions (see Table 4.6). This finding confirms the results of previous studies in primary classrooms in England (Brown and Edmondson, 1984; Galton et al., 1999b; Harrop and Swinson, 2003) that the number of open questions asked was considerably less than the number of closed questions. In fact, the greater number of open questions in this current study than in previous studies may have been because of the dataset of questions identified by teachers in the video-mediated interview and the definitions used, as explained in Sections 4.3 and 4.4.1. In addition, it was evident that, although responses to the questions asked were two words on average, some of the open questions asked by the teachers in this current study elicited varied or relatively long responses (see Section 4.4.2). An example of a response made up of several words may help the child to develop reasoning, which may contribute to the development of higher thinking skills (Galton et al., 1999b; Alexander, 2000). The reason why open questions help promote learning is relevant to the learning concept in social constructivism (as discussed in Section 2.2.3) in that an individual learner constructs the meaning of what they have learned through interaction.
It was expected that teachers would ask more closed than open questions as reported in previous studies. Our findings (see Table 4.6) showed that, based on the dataset of 74 questions, the majority (about 76%) of the questions posed by the teachers to four to five year-old children were closed. The results of this current study are consistent with the previous findings (Brown and Edmondson, 1984; Galton et al., 1999b; Harrop and Swinson, 2003) where, in England, teachers in primary schools asked a great number of closed questions. Siraj‐Blatchford and Manni (2008) found that the pre-school teachers involved in the REPEY project used only 5.1% open questions, whilst 94.9% of the questions were closed. In answering teachers’ questions classified as closed questions, the teacher may tend to request correct responses to pre- determined answers (Kerry, 2002; MacNaughton and Williams, 2009). This may encourage children to participate in a “guessing game” to guess what answer the teacher is looking for (Wilson and Haugh, 1995; Haworth, 2001; Mercer and Littleton, 2007).
Based on the findings presented in Chapter 4, 39% of the closed questions found in this study were forced alternative questions. Researchers (Wittmer and Honig, 1991; de Rivera et al., 2005) have suggested that forced alternative questions place a number of constraints on pupils when it comes to responding, because children select an answer from the choices available. In contrast, open questions invite the children to formulate their own responses. It is not surprising that the children’s responses to the 74 questions asked by the fifteen teachers were very short, of two words on average, and usually involved facts (see Section 4.4.2). The results with regard to forced alternative questions suggest that these questions may invite children to guess the answers from the possible answers provided (Edwards and Furlong, 1978; Fisher, 1995). It can be said that the overuse of this question could limit opportunities for children to talk as part of the learning process.
Although it is important to ask “the right question at the right time” (Myhill et al., 2006), any purposes of questions were found to be beneficial for learning. Newton (2013, p. 11) notes that “All are useful productive questions but are stronger in their use if focused on particular stages in a lesson.” However, according to social constructivism, learning is perceived as co- constructions of knowledge through interaction, with an effective use of questions to help children connect new experiences with prior knowledge. In order to do this, the role of sustaining dialogues, which are usually initiated by teachers’ questions, will allow participation and learning. Teachers’ questions may promote better opportunities for learning and pupils’ understanding as teachers invite children to share their ideas, as they are required to formulate their ideas in words. In order to improve the quality of teachers’ questions for learning, researchers (Mercer and Littleton, 2007; Alexander, 2008 to name a few) have encouraged
teachers to use “dialogic talk” (Alexander, 2008) where teachers’ questions may be used to guide the children’s learning.
For teachers to develop higher thinking in children, instead of asking quick fire questions, effective questions elicit higher cognitive responses. According to Bloom (1956), the taxonomy of questions or higher-order questions which invite the pupils to give reasons, speculations or make an argument will develop higher-order thinking. In Bloom’s cognitive level of analysis, one of the teachers’ questions, “Why does it [the egg] become white?”, will promote reasoning as the various ideas and many different responses given by the children are welcomed.
In summary, based on this study’s dataset of 74 questions, Thai teachers reported eleven questioning purposes. Apparently the purpose of hypothesizing comprised all the open questions. This finding on the use of open question may invite a longer response of children’s ideas for developing understanding. There is a need for teachers in this present study to raise the quality of asking open questions of high levels of thinking when they aim to achieve particular purposes.