基于思维品质培养的高中英语阅读课教师提问的现状研究

本文是一篇教学论文，本研究主要探讨阅读课教师提问的现状及问题产生的原因。通过课堂观察、学生问卷、教师问卷、访谈等方法收集资料，找出问题的答案。本研究共选取成都市某中学13名教师和167名学生为研究对象。

Chapter OneIntroduction

1.1 Research Background
English learning and cultivation of thinking are inseparable. For one thing, learning andusing English depends on thinking. For another, English learning can facilitate thedevelopment of thinking quality (Cheng Xiaotang, 2016; Chen Zehang, Wang Qiang, QiangXiaofang, 2019). In 2017, to lead students and teachers to focus on development of thinkingin English learning and teaching, cultivation of thinking quality was clearly listed as one ofthe most important teaching objectives for the first time in The National Curriculum forCommon Senior High Schools (2017 Edition) (hereinafter referred to as “Curriculum Standard2017”) released by the Ministry of Education. “Curriculum Standard 2017” specifieddefinition, cultivation objectives, and levels of thinking quality and provided teachers withsample lesson designs on cultivation of thinking quality. “Thinking quality refers to the abilityand level of thinking in terms of logic, criticism, and creativity” (the Ministry of Education, p.05). From descriptions of objectives and levels of thinking quality, it exposes that thedevelopment of thinking quality is composed of observing, comparing, analyzing, inferring,generalizing, constructing, critiquing and creating. After “Curriculum Standard 2017” wasissued, cultivation of thinking quality became an essential task of English teaching andlearning, which was hotly discussed in English teaching circles.
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1.2 Purpose and Significance of This Study
With the purpose of finding out the problems of the current situation of teacherquestioning from the perspective of cultivation of thinking quality and reasons for theproblems, this study is conducted to solve the following two questions. First, what is thecurrent situation of teacher questioning from the perspective of cultivation of thinking qualityin reading classes? What are the problems? And second, what are the reasons for theproblems?
The thesis has both theoretical significance and practical significance:
Theoretical significance：
There are a variety of researches on teacher questioning but most of them focus ontypes of questioning, strategies of questioning, feedback of questioning. In this study, theauthor conducts a research based on cultivation of thinking quality, which enlarges andenriches literature about teacher questioning and thinking quality. In addition, a newperspective on studying teacher questioning in reading classes can be provided.
Practical significance:
Although the theory of education and teaching methods change rapidly, teacherquestioning is still one of the most convenient as well as one of the most commonly-usedteaching tools. A research aims to find out the current situation of teacher questioning fromthe perspective of cultivation of thinking quality can help some teachers realize problems oftheir questioning, strengthen some teachers’ awareness of cultivation of thinking quality andawareness of integrating thinking quality into question designing. In these ways, teachers canbetter develop students’ thinking quality.
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Chapter TwoLiterature Review

2.1 Thinking Quality
In the 1950s, Soviet psychologists firstly began to research thinking quality. They heldthat thinking is various from person to person so that some characteristics of thinking must bepicked out. The concept of thinking quality was proposed by American psychologist J. P.Guilford (Liu Daoyi, 2018). Guilford (1973, p. 3) held that characteristics of creativityincludes flexibility, originality, fluency, curiosity, sensitivity, independence and so on. InChina, Lin Chongde is the pioneer of researching thinking quality (Chen Zehang, Wang Qiang,Qian Xiaofang, 2019). Lin Chongde put forward the concept of thinking quality as early as in1978. Thinking quality is defined as the manifestation of intellectual characteristics ininpidual thinking activities (Ling Chongde, 1984). Lin (2005) held that thinking quality ismainly composed of five aspects: agility, flexibility, incisiveness, criticism and creativity ofthinking. “Agility of thinking reflects speed of thinking” (Lin Chongde 24). That’s what weusually called quick response or slow response. As for flexibility of thinking, “it refers to howflexible thinking is” (Lin Chongde 24). For example, a person with flexible thinking can solvea problem flexibly with different methods. “Incisive thinking is defined as the breadth andcomplexity of thinking” (Lin Chongde 24). Incisive thinking helps people think deeply.“Critical thinking is the degree of independent analysis and criticism in thinking activities”(Lin Chongde 24). With critical thinking, people can have a reflection of their thinking.“Creative thinking is the innovative spirit of thinking”(Lin Chongde 24). Lin Chongde’spision of thinking quality is the most comprehensive one (Wang Xuepeng, 2017).

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2.2 Teacher Questioning
This section introduces definitions of teacher questioning and types of teacherquestioning. When introducing types of questioning, the author focuses on types ofquestioning based on Bloom’s cognitive taxonomy because it has a close relationship withthinking.
2.2.1 Definition of Teacher Questioning
A question is any sentence which has an interrogative form or function (Cotton, 1988, p.01). Specifically, Richards (2002, p. 379) held that questioning is an expression of facts,opinions, beliefs only if they can activate students’ responses. Similarly, Penny Ur (1996, p.229) defined questioning as a teacher utterance which aims to activate an oral response fromthe learner. In their view, from the perspective of functions of questioning, teacherquestioning is an interrogative form that can activate students’ responses. Questioning aremuch more than activate students’ responses. Cooper demonstrated that “appropriate use ofquestions can create an effective and powerful learning environment” (2006, p. 109). Brualdi(1998, p. 01) concluded that for thousands of years, the process of asking questions canimpart factual knowledge and conceptual understanding. Ornstein (1987, p. 71) furtherexplained that questioning can challenge the students, help clarify concepts and problemsrelated to the lesson, and challenge students to think. Similarly, Chen Zehang, Wang Qiang,Qian Xiaofang (2019) held that teacher questioning can lead students to challenge themselves,challenge the present ideas and to cultivate students’ critical thinking. In their view, teacherquestioning can be used to cultivate students’ thinking.
Based on the above ideas, this paper defines teacher questioning as an interrogativeform asked by teachers which can check students’ understanding, challenge students andpromote students’ development of thinking.
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Chapter Three Methodology........................................ 21
3.1 Questions..............................21
3.2 Participants..............................21
3.3 Instruments..................................22
Chapter Four Results and Discussions...............................27
4.1 Results and Discussions of the Current Situation of Teacher Questioning................. 27
4.1.1 Results and Discussion of Classroom Observation............................................27
4.1.2 Results and Discussion of Student Questionnaire..............................................39
Chapter Five Conclusion................................................52
5.1 Major Findings of This Research..................................52
5.2 Implications of This Research...............................53

Chapter FourResults and Discussions

4.1 Results and Discussions of the Current Situation of Teacher Questioning
To reveal the current situation of teacher questioning, results from classroomobservation and the student questionnaire are presented and discussed respectively. At the endof this part, to sum up, the author presents a summary of the current situation of teacherquestioning.
4.1.1 Results and Discussion of Classroom Observation
Classroom observation is used to find out the current situation of teacher questioningfrom the perspective of cultivation of thinking quality. This part presents results anddiscussion of the data from classroom observation. In this study, teacher questioning fromtwelve reading classes were classified into six levels from remembering, understanding,applying, to analyzing, evaluating and creating based on the revised Bloom’s cognitivetaxonomy. After sorting data, the number and proportion of four teachers’ questions atdifferent thinking levels, and questioning at different levels in pre-reading, while-reading andpost-reading stages are presented. The table 4.1 is made to show the number of four teachers’questions in reading classes at different thinking levels.

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Chapter FiveConclusion

5.1 Major Findings of This Research
This study mainly investigates the problems of the current situation of teacherquestioning in reading classes and the reasons for the problems. To find out the answer,classroom observation, the student questionnaire, the teacher questionnaire and interview areused to collect data. In total, thirteen teachers and one hundred sixty-seven students arechosen from a senior high school in Chengdu as the research objects. After summarizing theanalysis and discussions of the data, this research mainly got two findings.
First, the current situation of teacher questioning in reading classes based on thecultivation of thinking quality is investigated. The percentage of teacher questioning at thelevel of remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, creating investigated inthis study is 26.64 %, 49.75%, 10.73%, 6.44%, 3.28%, 3.16%. Teacher questioning in readingclasses are of great significance in cultivating students’ logical thinking, critical thinking andcreative thinking. Specifically, development of thinking quality corresponds to questioning atdifferent levels. Therefore, distribution of questioning at different levels in different readingteaching stages reflects teachers’ attention on cultivation of logical thinking, critical thinkingand creative thinking. Through summarizing the analysis and discussions of data fromclassroom observation and the student questionnaire, in terms of cultivation of logicalthinking, teacher questioning in reading classes lacks cultivation of analyzing and inferring.Most teacher questioning are used to retrieve information from students’ brains, to helpstudents understand language knowledge of reading materials and to train skills of doingreading exercises but a few questions required students responding to use ability of analyzingand inferring. As for cultivation of critical thinking and creative thinking, teacher questioninglacks cultivation of analyzing, inferring, critiquing, and creating. A few questions are used toanalyze author’s attitudes, analyze and evaluate structure and genre of passages, analyze andevaluate authors’ and characters’ attitudes and opinions, author’s writing purpose, author’susage of language, and express personal ideas. In a word, the teachers’ questioning lackscultivation of analyzing, inferring, critiquing and creating. Most teachers’ questioning is at thelevel of remembering and understanding while a few questions are at the level of analyzing,evaluating and creating.
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