PHY 690 Fifth Draft S Papapanu The Art of Effective Questioning A Reflective Journey through Physics and Science Literature on Questioning Steven James Papapanu Department of Physics SUNY Buffalo State College 1300 Elmwood Ave Buffalo NY 14222 Lockport7195 aol com Abstract Acquiring knowledge of physics concepts is difficult for many students because these concepts can be abstract and counterintuitive Effective instructional approaches are the key to overcoming this difficulty they embrace the principle that students themselves must do the learning and that they therefore must be actively engaged throughout the learning process Questioning processes are central to such instructional approaches This paper describes some of the ways that the proper formulation and use of questions both by instructors and by students strongly support effective instruction the acquisition of physics knowledge by the students and the development of metacognition and critical thinking Acknowledgements This manuscript addressed requirements for PHY690 Masters Project at SUNY Buffalo State College under the supervision of Dr Daniel MacIsaac I wish to sincerely thank Dr MacIsaac and Dr David Abbott for their helpful guidance Introduction As physics instructors one major goal we have for our students is that they acquire a good working knowledge of physics concepts Specifically our goal is that they acquire both declarative figurative knowledge and procedural operative knowledge Declarative knowledge consists of knowing facts whereas operative knowledge involves understanding where the declarative knowledge comes from and operative knowledge also involves the capacity to use apply transform or recognize the relevance of declarative knowledge in new situations Arons 1997 p 377 Wiggins 1993 contends that we cannot be said to understand something unless we can employ our knowledge wisely fluently flexibly and aptly in particular and diverse contexts p 200 To reach such a contextual level of physics knowledge is certainly not easy Students come to class with much prior knowledge preconceptions pejoratively named misconceptions acquired from years of everyday experiences Through a guiding process this prior knowledge must be elicited confronted expanded and differentiated into more standardized and complete physics knowledge Students coming to physics class also often have been passive participants in their previous courses To construct their new physics knowledge however they must be transformed into active participants McDermott 1991 states that meaningful learning requires deep mental engagement by the learner p 305 All this leads us as instructors to realize how important it is to consider how we can best secure this student engagement 1 14 2019 1 PHY 690 Fifth Draft S Papapanu Traditional instruction according to Mazur 1997 is almost always delivered as a monologue in front of a passive audience p 9 Slater 2008 states that such a lecture can be described as the process by which the teacher s notes get transferred into students notebooks without passing through the brains of either p 317 Such instruction is very teacher centered the students do not have the opportunity to actively interact with the instructor or with each other Since this mode of instruction does not actively engage most students it is not surprising that it has been found ineffective in helping them to construct their new physics knowledge Fortunately in recent decades reform based methods have resulted in more effective pedagogy Megowan 2007 p 1 A hallmark of these approaches is that rather than being told science students are actively engaged in posing questions and searching out their best answers That is they do science Students also gain the perspective that science is not a compendium of established facts but that it is rather an evolutionary inquiry based endeavor As Bransford and Donovan 2005 put it science is about questioning the obvious p 410 Minstrell and Kraus 2005 state students should be able to see science as involving many questions as yet unanswered p 492 It follows then that questions play many critical roles in supporting effective instructional approaches As instructors we must develop the insight and skill to effectively formulate select and use questions Further we must help our students to develop questioning skills of their own The above points can be summarized by asserting that the art of questioning is an essential supporting component of effective instructional approaches which in turn actively engage the student to facilitate the acquisition of physics knowledge A visual representation of these supporting relationships is shown below in Figure 1 Student Knowledge Student Engagement Effective Instructional Approaches Effective Questioning Figure 1 The foundational nature of effective questioning 1 14 2019 2 PHY 690 Fifth Draft S Papapanu Figure 1 is meant to illustrate the foundational role of effective questioning It is not meant to indicate however that reaching the goal of student knowledge is a once through process That process rather is ongoing and continuous This is true because for each new concept encountered the process repeats Further even for any one concept it may be necessary to cycle through repeatedly over time in new contexts to build the level of student comprehension to the requisite level Arons 1997 states for example that genuine learning of abstract ideas is a slow process and requires both time and repetition p 45 Figure 2 is a representation of this ongoing process Student Knowledge Effective Questioning Student Engagement Effective Instructional Approaches Figure 2 The ongoing nature of the questioning process While questions serve to engage students they have another important function Questions must guide the students as well Metaphorically we might liken a student s acquiring of physics knowledge to a long journey through unfamiliar territory The student starting out outfitted only with his or her prior knowledge faces the daunting task of reaching the destination of physics knowledge Surely such a journey would be facilitated by a competent guide The implication for us as instructors is that our questioning must have a guiding element While the student must make the journey himself our role is to illuminate the pathway 1 14 2019 3 PHY 690 Fifth Draft S Papapanu Acquiring Physics Knowledge The Journey Begins Every journey has a starting point For each of our students that starting
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