This research is based on the Middle School Mathematics Project (MSMP) funded
by the Interagency Educational Research Initiative (IERI) through a grant to the American
Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Both teachers’ video lessons and
students’ pre-and-post test scores were used to investigate the effects of teachers’ types,
quality, and quantity of questioning students’ knowledge of algebra concepts and skills in
variables, change, equality, and equations in middle school students in seventh and eighth
grades. The study further explored the relationship between types of questioning, quality of
questioning, and quantity of questioning. Later, teachers’ intention of asking two types of
questions, probing and guiding, and teachers’ questioning acquisition methods were
studied through face-to-face teacher interviews.
This dissertation used a mixed approach utilizing both quantitative and qualitative
methods. The data were collected from 33 teachers in two different states, Texas and
Delaware, who participated in the IERI project either during the 2002-2003, the 2003-
2004, or the 2004-2005 school years. A total of 103 videotapes were obtained consisting of
one to five lessons for each teacher. The teachers used one of four different textbooks:
MathThematics (Billstein, et al., 1999), Connected Mathematics (Lappan, et al., 1998),
Mathematics: Applications and Connections Glencoe Algebra (Collins, et al., 1998), or
Mathematics in Context (MiC) (Romberg, et al., 1998). The results showed that teachers’ quality of probing questions affected students’
achievements when other variables--teachers’ teaching experience, textbook, and teachers’
math preparation--were controlled. It was also found that AAAS’ two highest rated two
textbooks, CMP and MiC, affected students’ understanding. Moreover, teachers’ math
preparation predicted student performance. Furthermore, quality and quantity of guiding
questions and probing questions were significantly correlated with each other (p < 0.01).
For the qualitative part, it was found that teachers’ were asking what they intended
to ask. In other words, they were aware of the role of questioning they were using. Also,
there were several methods that seemed to be more used when acquiring questioning skills-
-watching and observing teachers, being in the field or from student-teacher experience,
and workshops.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2491 |
| Date | 15 May 2009 |
| Creators | Sahin, Alpaslan |
| Contributors | Kulm, Gerald |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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