Inferential talk during teacher–child interactions in small-group play

This study examined teachers’ questions and children's responses during a play-based activity implemented in small groups within preschool classrooms. The first aim of this study was to describe teachers’ questions in terms of four levels of abstraction (i.e., a continuum of literal to inferential questions) and children's responses to these questions. The second aim was to examine the relations between teachers’ questions and children's responses using sequential analyses, to include children's level of abstraction and mean length of utterance (MLU). Participants were 39 teachers and up to six children from their preschool classroom. We found that teachers’ questions made up an average of 25% of their talk to children during play, and were relatively balanced between literal and inferential questions. Furthermore, significant sequential associations were found between the level of abstraction of teachers’ questions and the level of abstraction of children's responses (e.g., teachers’ inferential questions tended to elicit children's inferential responses). Finally, we found that teachers’ inferential questions were not related to children's MLU; that is, teachers’ more abstract questions did not elicit longer utterances from children. These findings suggest that play is a valuable context in which teachers may promote children's use of inferential language.     

A Method of Providing a More Valid Distribution of School Marks

The cognitive thought processes involved in students’ answers to different kinds of teachers’ questions were investigated using data obtained from a previous study. The dimensions examined were (a) the degree of correspondence between the cognitive level of teachers’ questions and the cognitive level of students’ answers, and (b) the relation of that correspondence to the type of cognitive coding system used, grade level, and clarity of the questions and answers. It was found that the chances are about even that there will be a correspondence between the cognitive level of the question asked and the cognitive level of the response that was elicited. The coding system used, grade level of the students, and clarity of the questions each moderated this effect.     

Development of the instrument of question-answer process (IQAP) and its application in examining salient characteristics between pre- and in-service teachers in senior high school chemistry class

The purpose of this study is to examine the salient characteristics of the ‘Question-Answer Process’ (QAP) in senior high school chemistry class between pre- and in-service teachers. We first developed the ‘Instrument of Question-Answer Process’ (IQAP), and then, applied it to compare salient characteristics of QAP between pre- and in-service teachers. Data collection consists of classroom observation and structured-interview. Participants are seven pre-service and seven in-service chemistry teachers. The results are: (a) Both pre-and in-service teachers ask most of the questions and students ask few questions; (b) Pre-service teachers ask more lower cognitive level questions, while in-service teachers ask more higher cognitive level questions; (c) Pre-service teachers tend to ask non-volunteer students while in-service teachers tend to ask volunteer students to respond; (d) Pre-service teachers tend to be ‘no feedback or ignore’ after students provide answers and both pre- and in-service teachers seldom guide students to reflect on answers; and (e) The frequency of authority of ‘student’ in pre-service teachers’ class is much higher than those in in-service teachers’ class, while the frequency of authority of ‘teacher and student’ is much lower than those of in-service teachers’ class.     

Responding to children’s answers: questions embedded in the social context of early childhood education

This article presents analysis of question–answer sequences during problem inquiry between a teacher and two children in an early childhood crèche in New Zealand. Conversation analysis is used to reveal which questions the teacher asks, how children answer the questions, and the teacher’s responses to the child’s answers. Although adults’ ‘effective’ questions were identified and promoted in the REPEY study much less attention has been given to how adults respond to children’s answers. It is imperative to investigate the sequences of talk which follow a question in order to establish how teaching and learning is co-constructed in context, one utterance at a time and as a joint project between teacher and child. The findings suggest that task problems and emotional problems are treated in a similar way during problem inquiry, highlighting the complexity of interactions when teachers are providing both emotional care and educational support for young children.     

Attributional patterns towards students with and without learning disabilities: a comparison of pre- and in-service teachers in China

This study aims to investigate the differences of attributional responses to students with and without learning disabilities (LD) between pre- and in-service teachers in mainland China. A total of 204 teachers (101 pre-service and 103 in-service teachers) were surveyed using vignettes and Likert scale questions to ascertain their responses to students with and without LD. Drawing from Weiner’s attributional theory, teachers’ feedback, frustration, sympathy and expectation were measured. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was executed to compare pre-service and in-service teacher responses regarding students with and without LD. The findings showed that pre-service teachers experienced significantly lower frustration than in-service teachers to students with and without LD. Moreover, the teachers gave more positive feedback but felt less sympathy to students with LD who exerted high effort. These findings implied that pre-service tended to foster a more positive attribution style. Implications and recommendations for research and practice are also presented.     

The relationship between critical thinking skills and in‐class questioning behaviours of English language teaching students

It is important that trainee teachers in the faculties of education should develop their critical thinking skills so that they can meet the expectations and needs of their profession. This study aimed at investigating the relationship between critical thinking skills and in‐class questioning behaviours of English Language Teaching (ELT) students at the Faculty of Education at Mugla University. The authors attempted to find out answers to the following questions: ‘What kinds of questions do students in lower and higher critical thinking groups ask?’ and ‘Is there a difference between the questions of students with higher and lower critical thinking scores?’ Three data collection instruments were used: Ennis‐Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test; a reading passage; and a structured interview. The findings obtained suggest that the questions asked by the students of the higher critical thinking score group are not questions that clarify unclear points, but questions asked out of curiosity, to remove the uncertainties, and to lead people to think profoundly. Moreover, these students ask questions to find alternatives, to think the reverse and to head for new ideas. The students in the higher score group experienced thinking processes more intensively than the lower score group.     

An analysis of the effects of in‐service teacher training on Turkish preschool teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion

Any implementation of an inclusive policy is largely dependent on educators’ attitudes. In Turkey, many teachers who educate preschool children with Special Educational Needs (SEN), and who have not received in‐service teacher training (INSET) are observed to have negative attitudes towards their SEN students. The aim of this article is to examine differences between the attitudes of preschool teachers before and after an INSET course. Sixty‐six preschool teachers were selected for this study which had a single group pre–post‐test design. The teachers’ opinions and attitudes relating to mainstreaming SEN students in regular educational environments were assessed using the ‘Opinions Relative to Mainstreaming’ scale. The data indicate that these teachers were affected by the INSET programme in such a way that their attitudes towards the inclusion of SEN students became more positive.     

Exploring the relationship between K-8 prospective teachers’ algebraic thinking proficiency and the questions they pose during diagnostic algebraic thinking interviews

In this study, we explored the relationship between prospective teachers’ algebraic thinking and the questions they posed during one-on-one diagnostic interviews that focused on investigating the algebraic thinking of middle school students. To do so, we evaluated prospective teachers’ algebraic thinking proficiency across 125 algebra-based tasks and we analyzed the characteristics of questions they posed during the interviews. We found that prospective teachers with lower algebraic thinking proficiency did not ask any probing questions. Instead, they either posed questions that simply accepted and affirmed student responses or posed questions that guided the students toward an answer without probing student thinking. In contrast, prospective teachers with higher algebraic thinking proficiency were able to pose probing questions to investigate student thinking or help students clarify their thinking. However, less than half of their questions were of this probing type. These results suggest that prospective teachers’ algebraic thinking proficiency is related to the types of questions they ask to explore the algebraic thinking of students. Implications for mathematics teacher education are discussed.     

‘Good-fit’ teacher-child play interactions and the subsequent autonomous play of preschool children

The purpose of this study was to test a model of adult-child play interactions in preschool classrooms, based on the work of Vygotsky and neo-Vygotskian scholars. The model predicts that adults will tailor the play support they provide to the immediate needs of individual children, and that this will lead to subsequent independent play. Classroom interactions between eight preschool teachers and 32 students were videotaped, transcribed, and analyzed over a six-month period. Interviews were conducted with the eight adult participants to confirm and elucidate findings from observed classroom behaviors. Distinct types of play support needed by children and given by teachers were identified. These were operationally defined; definitions were used to create a coding system that was found to have high inter-rater reliability. Sequential analyses were conducted to determine goodness-of-fit between teacher responses and children's needs. Behavioral outcomes of a good fit were also examined. Findings support the model tested here. Teachers often responded to children's play with behaviors matching the level of support needed. Good-fit interactions more frequently led to autonomous subsequent play than poor-fit interactions.     

A Microanalysis of Teachers' Verbalizations in Inclusive Classrooms

The present study examined the verbalizations of 16 teachers from inclusive preschool classrooms. Two hours of audiotaped verbalizations for each teacher were analyzed for one-on-one interactions between teachers and children and also for interactions between teachers and small groups of children. Results showed that teachers did not modify their question-asking behavior depending on the ability level of the children or the composition of small groups of children. Teachers asked primarily low-level questions to all children. In their statements, teachers used more logical directives and directives, and fewer supportive responses to children with disabilities than they did to typically developing children. The focus of teachers' verbalizations differed depending on whether children had disabilities or were typically developing. These results suggest that teachers need to be provided with information that will help them challenge children by varying the demand level of questions and matching their verbalizations to the child's ability level. Future research should address the bi-directionality of interactions and the implications for teacher preparation programs.     

How Do Chemistry Teachers Deal with Students' Incorrect/Undesired Responses to Oral Classroom Questions? Exploring Effective Feedback Practices

In this paper, chemistry teachers’ reactions/behavior or actions following students’ undesired, unexpected or incorrect responses/answers to the posed teacher oral questions are reported. This study which was carried out in Tanzania in Iringa Municipality involved three chemistry teachers teaching in three different secondary schools. Actual teaching situations of the three teachers were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed interpretively. We also performed semi-structured interviews with these teachers to bring forth the teachers’ inherent perceptions about their practice in relation to what was observed of the teachers’ individual actual teaching situations. Up to eight different forms of teachers’ responses or reactions to students’ undesired responses or incorrect answers are discussed with respect to how each is perceived to either positively or negatively affect students’ progressive learning. From the study, productive questioning is affected by teachers’ inability to effectively use classroom powers to trigger students’ thinking, as well as not being able to use students’ varied views to achieve the set learning goals. Instead of using their power strategies to facilitate students’ engagement with the scientific matter, the teachers used their classroom powers to guard themselves against classroom insecurities during the teaching process, such as preventing students from questioning their subject knowledge competencies.

     

Teachers’ Use of Scaffolding Strategies During Read Alouds in the Preschool Classroom

Relatively little is known regarding preschool teachers’ use of specific scaffolds, including those high support scaffolds (e.g., co-participating, eliciting, reducing choices) that may be important for children who are struggling to acquire language and literacy concepts. The goal of this study was to characterize preschool teachers’ use of six types of scaffolds (generalizing, reasoning, predicting, co-participating, reducing choices, eliciting; see O’Connor et al. in Ladders to literacy, Paul H. Brookes Publishing, Baltimore, MD, 2005) within the whole group read aloud session. Two specific questions were addressed: (1) To what extent do preschool teachers use high and low support scaffolds during whole group read aloud sessions? and (2) To what extent does preschool teachers’ perceived frequency of use of specific scaffolds correspond to their actual use of scaffolds? Videotaped classroom observations were carried out for five preschool teachers conducting whole group read alouds in their classrooms; frequency of use for six types of scaffolds was coded using systematic observation procedures. Results indicated that teachers showed a preference for three types of scaffolds, all of which were low support, and that the three types of high support scaffolds occurred at very low rates. Additionally, results showed a substantial discrepancy between teachers’ perceived frequency of use of specific types of scaffolds relative to their actual use. Together, findings suggest that preschool teachers may benefit from professional development focused on using a range of scaffolds, to include high support scaffolds beneficial to children who may need high levels of support to participate in read alouds.     

Teachers’ Literal and Inferential Questions and Children’s Responses: A Study of Teacher–Child Linguistic Interactions During Whole-Group Instruction in Hong Kong Kindergarten Classrooms

This study investigated the extent to which preschool teachers and children (ages 4–6) used literal and inferential language within the context of whole-group instruction in four kindergarten classrooms in Hong Kong. A total of 20 sessions of videotaped classroom observations of linguistic interactions between teachers and children were transcribed and then analyzed using a coding scheme to determine the cognitive complexity of teacher questions and child responses with reference to four levels of abstraction, representing a literal-to-inferential continuum. The results indicated that the teachers’ questions were predominantly literal in nature (83 %), and similarly the majority of the children’s responses (77 %) were also literal. Furthermore, it was revealed that in an average instructional session: (a) teachers produced significantly more utterances than children; (b) the difference in the quantity of teachers’ questions between literal and inferential levels was statistically significant; (c) similarly, the difference in the quantity of children’s responses between literal and inferential levels was also statistically significant; and (d) children produced a significantly larger quantity of shorter than longer utterances. As there is distinct value in whole-group instruction as a salient context for teacher–child interactive, linguistic engagement in kindergarten classrooms in Hong Kong, it is particularly vital that early childhood educators understand what types of linguistic interactions are occurring there and how to target professional development for teachers to better support language learning in young children.     

Quality Talk and dialogic teaching—an examination of a professional development programme on secondary teachers’ facilitation of student talk

This study used the Quality Talk and dialogic teaching approach with a group of secondary school teachers (N = 7) to train their facilitation of dialogical discussions by small groups of students. The study used video and audio analysis to assess the teachers’ observable behaviours during these discussions, before and after professional development; for example, types of Quality Talk questions asked. The study also used face‐to‐face interviews, held before and after the professional development, to investigate the teachers’ beliefs about learning through discussion. Results show that although the number of high‐quality questions from the teachers did not increase, the quality of the questions students asked of each other did improve, and resulted in extended periods of dialogic spells. Positive developments were found for teachers’ beliefs about the use of dialogue to foster deeper thinking with their secondary school‐aged students.     

Student Preschool Teachers’ Experiences of Science and Its Role in Preschool

This article reports on student preschool teachers’ views of science and its role in preschool. Three cohorts of students have been given a written questionnaire with open-ended questions before and after a one-semester course including science (specifically Chemistry and Physics) in a 3.5-year preschool teacher programme in Sweden. The science content in the course is integrated with other subjects and lecturers with different subject backgrounds work together in forming an integrated and meaningful context. A phenomenographic qualitative analysis of responses to the questionnaires before and after the course is presented. The analysis indicated that many students equate science with biology (nature studies), and several did not adjust this view even though chemistry and physics were explicitly taught. Surprisingly few students were negative towards science, none after the course. However, several remain hesitantly positive. Most students described ‘what’ and ‘how’ perspectives of science, but few developed a synthesised view of science activities. However, there was a shift towards a more integrated perspective after the course. Also the quality and eloquence of the students’ responses were noticeably improved in responses given after the course. Prior expectations and implications of the results for preschool teacher education are discussed.     

Predicting First Graders’ Social Competence from Their Preschool Classroom Interpersonal Context

Research Findings: This study investigates contributions of the preschool classroom interpersonal environment to students’ social competence in 1st grade. Participants were 862 ethnically/racially diverse children who attended public preschool classrooms serving low-income families. Systematic observations of 60 classrooms occurred across the preschool year and quantified teacher and student behaviors. Preschool and 1st-grade teachers provided reports of children’s social behavior. First-grade teachers also assessed children’s problem behaviors. Multilevel analyses indicated that at the end of 1st grade, students who experienced preschool settings with teachers who displayed more approving behavior, less disapproving behavior, and more positive emotional tone showed significant gains in positive social behavior and lower rates of problem behavior, even after students’ social skills at preschool entry were controlled. Greater gains in positive social behavior and fewer problem behaviors in 1st grade were also predicted by immersion in preschool classrooms that had more positive and cooperative interactions among peers. Practice or Policy: Universal preschool is a policy under consideration nationally and locally, with social competence often listed as an important goal. This study indicates that even in the absence of a particular social-emotional curriculum, preschool teachers’ behaviors and interactions among their students may have lasting implications for children’s social development.     

Preschool teachers’ literal and inferential questions and children's responses during whole-class shared reading

This study examined the extent to which preschool teachers used literal and inferential questions during classroom-based shared reading. Specific foci included (a) investigating the association among the level of literal or inferential language in the text, teachers’ text-related questions, and children's responses using sequential analysis, and (b) examining the relation between teachers’ inferential questioning and children's vocabulary outcomes. Participants included 25 preschool teachers and 159 four-year-old children. Teachers videotaped their whole-class shared reading of an informational narrative text. Teachers and children's extratextual talk was analyzed and children completed standardized vocabulary assessments in fall and spring of the academic year. When reading this informational narrative text, teachers posed, on average, slightly more inferential questions than literal questions. Significant sequential associations were observed between the level of teachers’ questions and child responses, with inferential questions consistently eliciting inferential child responses. Few characteristics of teachers’ questions were associated with children's vocabulary outcomes. Results suggest that preschool teachers can use inferential questioning to encourage children to participate in conversation at complex, inferential levels; informational texts appear to provide a successful context for this inferential discourse. Implications for teachers and allied professionals are discussed.     

Teacher and student voices: a comparison between two perspectives to study integration processes in Italy

Student voice has become increasingly important in educational research at an international level. Research in Italy on school integration of students with disabilities has almost entirely left behind student voice. The very few researches based on student voice suggest that there is a mismatch between student and teacher voices when faced with the same situation. From a methodological outlook, the collection of data through students’ samples implies some difficulties related to the fact that the study regards children and young students. The present issue becomes even more demanding when children with disabilities are taken into consideration. The aim of this research is to demonstrate the mismatch between the data produced by the teachers and the data produced by the students of the same class. These data are the basis for a study on the importance of student voice in research on school integration. The research was carried out as a multiple case study. Nineteen classes with at least one student with disabilities were involved. The teachers filled in a questionnaire with closed questions about school integration, later compared with the students’ answers to the same questionnaire. A structured observation offered the opportunity to triangulate data thus adding new information on the reliability of the two points of view. The main results show that in all the classes there was at least one question with a significant difference between the students’ and the teachers’ answers; the triangulation of data through observation suggested that the students’ perception was as close to observation as their teachers.     

Early writing development: kindergarten teachers’ beliefs about emergent writing in Qatari preschool settings

Writing often begins during the very early years of childhood; however, some children first learn writing when they begin attending school. Teachers’ beliefs about early writing development can influence when and how children learn to write. The purpose of this study was to determine kindergarten teachers’ beliefs about the development of children’s emergent writing in Qatari preschool settings. A 30-item questionnaire was completed by 93 kindergarten teachers with a range of qualifications, years of teaching experience, areas of specialisation, and preschool teaching level. They were selected from private and government-funded schools in Doha. The questionnaire consisted of four components: mechanisms of writing, concepts of writing, conventions of writing, and composing. The questionnaire responses indicated that teachers hold positive beliefs regarding most emergent writing components, with concepts of writing receiving the highest mean score, followed by mechanisms of writing. The results also revealed statistically significant differences among teachers due to a number of study variables. Based on these findings, the researchers offered a number of suggestions and recommendations aimed at promoting children’s emergent writing in Qatari preschool settings and similar contexts.     

Dealing with gender in the classroom: a portrayed case study of four teachers

This paper emerges from a qualitative case study that takes place in a US preschool setting and explores teachers’ influences on the construction of children’s gender identities. According to postmodern theories of gender, identity is constructed and constituted through social interactions and performances. This study focuses on the gender identities constructed as preschool teachers and students interact and learn. In this portrayed case study, we combine the methodological elements of case study and portraiture. Portraiture methods enhance the traditional case study process, authorising a more considered presentation of participants and context. Four teachers at one preschool setting are portrayed. Some of the findings include the teachers’ awareness of the importance of their interactions with students and the impact they have on students’ gender performances. We also suggest that teachers need more resources and self-awareness regarding their own gender performances; teachers’ self-knowledge may be important in disrupting gender-stereotyped teaching and social constructions, and in creating more inclusive learning spaces for all students.