Relating Formative Assessment and Affordances to Learn in Classroom Questioning Practices

• In Event: Roundtable Session 25
  In Roundtable Session: Formative Assessment, Questioning, and Higher Order Thinking

Abstract

As Mercer (2002) notes, certain linguistic strategies, including questioning, are employed throughout the world. In spite of this, there is evidence to suggest that questioning is not living up to its full potential to support learning in the classroom.

This study contributes to the existing questioning and informal formative assessment literature by describing classroom questioning practices in a context that has not yet been explored: affordance for student learning (as related to opportunity to learn). It is guided by the following questions: Can differences in affordances for student learning reflected in classroom questioning practices be reliably described and systematically distinguished? In what ways might these differences in affordances for student learning define levels of teacher expertise in questioning?

Authors

• L. Shahrzad Ahmadi, University of Colorado - Denver

• Maria Araceli Ruiz-Primo, University of Colorado - Denver