QUESTIONING
For the last four decades, consensus thinking is that reflection in a classroom can take place only when a questioning strategy promotes it. Paradigms and models of questioning have proliferated endlessly. All begin with the assumption that there are unproductive, sterile questions that throttle student thought. Thus, Wasserman (1992) talks about "stupid questions" which ignore student ideas, are "insensitive to the feelings or ideas being expressed," or are irrelevant and disrespectful.
Dead-end questions may be too complex for student experience, may not provide sufficient "wait time" for students to process the question, may involve trick questions or those which ask a question whose answer can be found in the text or lecture of the teacher.
Questions which promote thought begin with the assumption that students do not think unless they have something to think about. Dewey, Hullfish and Smith, Hunt and Metcalf, Bigge, and Bayles argued that this "something" can only be a problem. But the problem must be real, i.e., internalized, felt by students. "Pseudo problems" occur when the importance of the problem is ignored or when a problem is assumed to exist because the teacher or text defines it as a problem. Thus, "What were the causes of the Civil War?" has been a problem to historians for many years. It is unlikely to be one to students.
Many authors (Simpson, 1996) have attempted to create paradigms of questioning, including Simpson, Weast, Hauser and Wasserman. What all of these different paradigms have in common is the strongly held conviction that the traditional, text bound, information coverage, low-level questioning must be replaced by a more fruitful approach that stimulates students to reflect on problems.