Teachers' Use of Questions in Eighth-Grade Mathematics Classrooms in Germany, Japan, and the United States

Abstract

Teachers in Germany, Japan, and the United States pose many questions to their students, and we assumed that the kinds of questions teachers asked influenced students' opportunities to think and communicate mathematically during lessons. However, previous research comparing the effects of higher and lower order questions on student learning have reported mixed results. Asking more higher order questions does not simply improve student learning. This article reports our attempt to go beyond simply counting the number of questions students are asked and to make sense of these inconsistent results. Two studies were conducted in which teachers' use of questions in 8th-grade mathematics classrooms in the 3 cultures was investigated. The 1st study, which employed primarily quantitative analyses, asked 2 questions: (a) How much do teachers and students talk during mathematics lessons in the 3 cultures, and (b) what kinds of things do teachers and students say? The 2nd study, which integrated qualitative descriptions of the ways that teachers in these 3 cultures use questions, asked 3 questions: (a) How do higher order questions relate to teachers' instructional goals, (b) when during the lesson do teachers in the 3 cultures use higher order questions, and (c) what kinds of higher order questions are asked in the 3 cultures?