A Teacher Questioning Activity: The Use of Oral Open-ended Questions in Mathematics Classroom

Mela Aziza

doi:10.17583/qre.2021.6475

Abstract

This research aims to analyse a teacher’s questioning activity using oral open-ended questions in the mathematics classroom in three phases: the teacher asks open-ended mathematics questions orally, students answer the questions, and the teacher responds to the answers. This research involved a mathematics teacher and twenty-three year 7 students (aged eleven-twelve years old) in a secondary school in the UK. The samples were chosen using purposive sampling technique. The data collection technique used was three 45-minute-long lesson observations using field notes and audio-recordings. The notes and the transcript of the recording were analysed to find the answers for three research questions. The results showed that the teacher posed any kind of questions orally. The teacher asked two or three oral open-ended questions. Students answered those questions with different answer. The answers were not only correct, but also incorrect and incomplete. After getting an answer, the teacher responded by asking follow-up questions both closed and open-ended.

Highlights

This research aims to analyse a teacher’s questioning activity using oral open-ended questions in the mathematics classroom in three phases: the teacher asks open-ended mathematics questions orally, students answer the questions, and the teacher responds to the answers
Heidari and Rajabi (2017) and Shahrill (2013) studied the effectiveness of verbal or oral questioning in mathematics classroom, they focused on all question types
To maximise oral questioning activity, teachers should include appropriate higher-order questions (Shahrill, 2013), keeping in mind that some authors believe that higher-order questions refer to open-ended questions (Chin, 2006; Lee & Kinzie, 2012; Tofade et al, 2013)

Summary

Introduction

This research aims to analyse a teacher’s questioning activity using oral open-ended questions in the mathematics classroom in three phases: the teacher asks open-ended mathematics questions orally, students answer the questions, and the teacher responds to the answers. The teacher asked two or three oral open-ended questions Students answered those questions with different answer. The teacher responded by asking follow-up questions both closed and open-ended. Despite the fact that open-ended questions pose numerous benefits, some researchers (Al-Absi, 2012; Muir, 2009; Kwon et al, 2006) have found that teachers mostly ask closed questions during a mathematics lesson. They found out the teachers difficult to react to different possible responses from students when asking open-ended questions

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Conclusion