Investigating High School Teachers’ Discourse-Based Assessment Practice: A Focus on Questioning to Elicit Students’ Thinking

• In Event: Examining Teacher Assessment Practices

Abstract

This observational study examines high school teachers’ classroom assessment practice focusing on their questioning to elicit students’ thinking. Previous studies indicate that although high school teachers learn the significance of questioning that elicits student thinking in classroom assessment, they tend to spend substantial time on questioning about how to solve problems, undermining the significance of mathematical concepts behind procedures. This study examines kinds of teacher questions that elicit students’ thinking using descriptive statistics. Further, the study examines teachers’ own views about classroom assessment practice using teacher interviews. The results indicate that probing and temperature taking questions elicit student thinking more frequently than expected answer and clarification questions. Patterns of teachers’ questioning are consistent with their own views about classroom assessment.

Author

• Taka Namikawa, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign