A study of comparisons of levels of questions used by elementary language arts teachers and high school English teachers

The purpose of the study was twofold:

To compare the levels of questions used by elementary language arts teachers and high school English teachers.

2. To determine if teachers' stated objectives were congruent with the levels of questions they asked.

The participants included five elementary language arts teachers and five high school English teachers selected from the Knoxville City School System. Each teacher was judged as competent by her principal.

Data were gathered from three observations of each teacher. Before each observation the teacher stated the objectives for that lesson. All observations lasted not less than twenty minutes, but not more than thirty minutes. Both a written record and a taped recording were made of questions asked during each observation.

All questions were categorized as being on the recall, process or application level. ( Questions asked on each level during one observation period were totaled and converted into percentages for each level. The percentage for each level of question used by elementary language arts teachers was compared with the percentage for each level of question used by high school English teachers.

For each lesson observed, the teacher's objectives were categorized as being on the recall, process or application level. Then the level of each objective was compared to the percentage of questions asked on that level during the observation.