First Draft S. PapapanuThe Instructional Roles of Effective Questioning in Engaging and Guiding Physics StudentsSteven James Papapanu, Department of Physics, SUNY-Buffalo State College, 1300 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo, NY 14222Abstract: Acquiring knowledge of physics concepts is difficult for many students since these concepts can be abstract and counter-intuitive. Effective instructional techniques are the key to overcoming this difficulty. These techniques comprehend the principle that it is the students who must do thelearning and, to accomplish that, they must be actively engaged throughout the learning process. Questioning processes, in turn, are central to these instructional techniques just as they are to the process of scientific discovery. This paper describes some of the ways that the proper design anduse 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 (maybe include these last items or maybe not).Acknowledgements:This manuscript addressed requirements for PHY690: Masters’ Project at SUNY–Buffalo State College and was informed by the comments of Dr. Daniel MacIsaac.Introduction:As physics instructors, one major goal we have for our students is to have them acquire a good working knowledge of physics concepts. More specifically, our goal is to have them acquire not only declarative knowledge, also known as figurative knowledge, but also to acquire procedural knowledge, also known as operative knowledge. Declarative knowledge consists of knowing “facts”. Operative knowledge, as Arons (1997) points out, involves understanding where the declarative knowledge comes from as well as the capacity to apply it in new situations (p. 377). In a similar vein, Wiggins (1993) points out 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). This is a good description of the kind of knowledge and understanding that we strive to help our students acquire.To reach such a level of physics knowledge is certainly not easy. Students come to class with misconceptions, also known as preconceptions, acquired from years of everyday experiences. These misconceptions need to elicited, confronted, and molded into more correct physics knowledge. Also, students coming to physics class may have been passive participants in their previous courses. To construct their new physics knowledge, however, they must be transformedinto active participants. As McDermott (1991) states, meaningful learning “requires deep mentalengagement by the learner.” (p. 305). All this leads us, as instructors, to realize how important it is for us to consider how we can best secure this student engagement.Traditional instruction, according to Mazur (1997), “is almost always delivered as a monologue in front of a passive audience.” (p. 9). Slater states that such a lecture can be described as “the 1/13/2019 4First Draft S. Papapanuprocess 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 students, it is not surprising that it has been found ineffective in helping them to construct their new physics knowledge.Fortunately, in recent decades, physics education research has resulted in the development and description of a number of more effective instructional approaches. We will touch on a couple ofthese later. A hallmark of these approaches is that, rather than being “told science”, the students are actively engaged in posing questions and searching out the answers. That is, they “do science”. The students also gain the perspective that science is not a compendium of established facts but rather an evolutionary, inquiry-based endeavor. As xxxx (xxxx) put it, “science is aboutquestioning the obvious” (p. 410) and “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 ineffective instructional approaches. The implication for us, as instructors, is that we must developthe insight and skill to effectively formulate, select, and use questions.The above points can be summarized by asserting that the art of questioning is an essential supporting component of effective instructional techniques 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. Figure 1 is meant to depict 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. Thatprocess, 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 1/13/2019 4 Student Engagement Effective InstructionalTechniques Effective QuestioningStudent KnowledgeFigure 1First Draft S. Papapanu“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.While questions serve to engage students, they have another important function. They 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 onlywith his 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, we can and must illuminate the pathway.The Journey Begins:(Here’s my current thinking. This section will not be too long. The big point will be that the
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