First Draft S Papapanu The Instructional Roles of Effective Questioning in Engaging and Guiding Physics Students Steven James Papapanu Department of Physics SUNY Buffalo State College 1300 Elmwood Ave Buffalo NY 14222 Abstract 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 the learning 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 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 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 transformed into active participants As McDermott 1991 states meaningful learning requires deep mental engagement 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 4 First Draft S Papapanu 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 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 of these 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 about questioning 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 in effective instructional approaches The implication for us as instructors is that we must develop the 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 Student Knowledge Student Engagement Effective Instructional Techniques Effective Questioning 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 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 1 13 2019 4 First 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 Student Knowledge Effective Questioning Student Engagement Effective Instructional Techniques Figure 2 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 only with 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 starting point for each student is the state of his prior knowledge including misconceptions And that it is very important to elicit both of these something that
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