Teacher’s questioning and students’ critical thinking in EFL classroom interaction

Abstract

The present study intended to examine the levels of questions based on Bloom’s Taxonomy used in EFL classroom interaction, to investigate the teacher’s questioning techniques and to analyze the roles of teacher’s questioning on students’ critical thinking. This study applied qualitative descriptive method. Classroom observation, field notes and interview were employed. The study engaged an English teacher at SMA Negeri 1 Tolitoli. The result showed that the teacher asked four out of six levels of questions. The teacher asked all lower-order levels questions (knowledge, comprehension and application) whereas he only asked fewer analysis questions as higher-order levels questions (never asked synthesis and evaluation questions). Furthermore, the teacher applied all questioning techniques proposed by Turney. They are structuring, focusing, redirecting, distributing, pausing, teacher reacting, prompting and changing the level of cognitive demand. This study also found the new technique, namely joking. However, the results revealed that the roles of teacher’s questioning only in the lower-order thinking of the students which could not facilitate the student’s critical thinking but it can lead the students to think critically. Therefore, it was recommended to maximize the use of higher-order levels questions in order to train the students think critically.Keywords: Lower-order levels questions, higher-order levels questions, questioning techniques, critical thinking

Reflection-based questioning: Aspects affecting Myanmar students’ reading comprehension

“…Barjesteh and Moghadam (2014) have also explained that teachers ask questions for two reasons: (1) to stimulate students’ active participation, and (2) to control the progress of teacher–student interaction so as to adjust instructional pace according to students’ understanding. Moreover, Yuliawati et al. (2016) suggested that the questioning strategy helps students develop their interest in the lesson content by promoting students’ rational thoughts, allowing teachers to eliminate their confusing thoughts, highlighting important ideas and concepts, evaluating their understanding, and encouraging their participation in the lesson.…”

“…Reading is also the most fundamental skill for nearly all academic subjects, students’ educational success, and their later careers ( Okkinga et al., 2018 ). Therefore, in teaching reading comprehension skills, teachers should use the most effective teaching strategies to stimulate students’ critical thinking ( Yuliawati et al., 2016 ). Among those strategies, the questioning strategy can affect students’ active learning participation ( Nuryani et al., 2018 ), so most teachers currently use the questioning strategy to elicit students’ responses, check their understanding, and control their behavior ( Yuliawati et al., 2016 ).…”

“…Therefore, in teaching reading comprehension skills, teachers should use the most effective teaching strategies to stimulate students’ critical thinking ( Yuliawati et al., 2016 ). Among those strategies, the questioning strategy can affect students’ active learning participation ( Nuryani et al., 2018 ), so most teachers currently use the questioning strategy to elicit students’ responses, check their understanding, and control their behavior ( Yuliawati et al., 2016 ). Furthermore, Joseph (2018) has emphasized that nearly all teachers use 35%–50% of their instructional time questioning students.…”

“…Teachers’ instructional strategy, in this case questioning, aims to stimulate students’ curiosity and maintain their interest by encouraging them to emphasize the content of the lesson, help teachers elucidate their confusion, elicit fundamental structures and vocabularies, check what students understand, and support their learning participation ( Yuliawati et al., 2016 ). However, the questioning strategy does have some weaknesses that must be addressed for optimum effectiveness.…”

“…Nappi’s study (2017) showed that for teachers to apply the questioning strategy, they need to plan effective questions for developing students’ critical thinking skills. Furthermore, another study ( Yuliawati et al., 2016 ) suggested that the questioning strategy cannot be effective and that students will be unmotivated if teachers’ questioning skill is poor. Additionally, Barjesteh and Moghadam (2014) suggested improving the questioning strategy by allowing students opportunities to question the teacher.…”