"DOES YOUR DOG BITE?"

Hans O. Andersen

IndianaUniversity

Bloomington, Indiana

In a classic comic scene a man is seen approaching another man who is walking a dog. The approaching man queries, "Does your dog bite?" The man replies, "No.' The approaching man then leans over to pet the dog and the dog promptly bites him. The bitten man then states, "You said your dog didn't bite.' The man replies, "I did, but, this is not my dog." In another scene, a man asks a wizard to give him a potion that would add fifty years to his life. The wizard hands him a drink, the man glugs down the drink and immediately becomes fifty years older. In the next scene, the man says, "May I rephrase that question?" And, in a classroom, a teacher asks a student, "Can you determine the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer?" And fails the student who suggests taking the barometer to the top of the building, leaning over its edge, dropping the barometer and then, using the formula D = 1/2AT2calculates the height. I classify these questions as "Does your dog bite?" questions. But, I imagine that several other labels, such as inappropriate questions, bad questions, empty questions, worthless questions.... which aptly describe how they might contribute to a class discussion or activity. One thing that I would never call these questions is productive questions because these questions rarely lead or engage a student in meaningful inquiry and as such they have very little or no instructional value other than entertainment. Leading students into meaningful/active inquiry should be the major reason for asking questions. Questions that do so can be called productive questions.

Lessons, of course, rarely revolve around one question. Several questions are needed. Questions are needed to get an inquiry initiated, to continue an inquiry, and to determine if the inquiry has led to a productive conclusion. Thus we need initiating, continuing, and concluding questions and a discussion of the characteristics of each type of question which defines its attributes becomes useful - - that is, being able to classify questions according to their attributes could be useful. One system of question classification that has been found very useful when planning lessons is Eltsgeest's system, a hierarchical system of questions that proceeds from very simple to quite sophisticated or from very concrete to abstract in a systematic manner. An abbreviation of Eltsgeest's sytem follows.

Elstgeest Abbreviated*

"A good question is a stimulating question which is an invitation to a closer look, a new experiment or a fresh exercise. The right question leads to where the answer can be found: to the real objects or events under study ...." The right question asks students to show rather than say the answer. Right questions stimulate productive student activity.

1. Attention-focusing Questions: Guide the necessary initial exploration of new materials - -the ‘messing about and getting to know you’ stage of exploration, ‘can you see and did you notice’ situation. Questions offering ‘point-at-ability’ are generally better.

Look here! What is it? What does it show about itself? What happens? What do I see, feel, or hear? What can you tell me about this? Have you seen one of these before?

2. Measuring and Counting Questions: Direct students to do some real time, right now measuring and counting. Students must check their answers themselves.

How many? How long? What is its mass?

3. Comparison Questions: Questions which bring about sharper observation by asking students to compare one object, event, or situation to another object, event, or situation.

How are your seeds alike and how are they different? How are spiders like insects? What is the difference between an oak and a maple tree?

4. Action Questions: Questions which ask "What happens if?" which can always be truthfully answered. They entail simple experimentation. These questions are most appropriate at the beginning of a study because they direct students to explore the properties of unfamiliar materials, living or noniiving, of iurces at work, and of small events taking place.

What happens when you put NaCl in water? What happens if you don't put the ends of plants you cut into water?

* Eltsgeest, Jos. "The Right Question at the Right Time" in Harlan, Wynn. Primary Science: Taking the Plunge. Heineman. Portsmouth, New Hampshire. 1983.

5. Problem Posing or ‘Can you find a way to’ Questions: This type of question always sets up a real problem-solving situation. If a student responds with a "no" to your problem posing question, you probably asked it too early in the questioning sequence and will have to return to more "What happens if" questions. Problem posing questions are essentially prediction questions. Finding the solution to a problem posing question involves forming hypotheses and conducting experiments. To successfully respond to this type of question requires the student to identify and control variables. This is when the student is really beginning to do science.

Can you identify the sources of pollution of this lake? Can you identify the organisms that come to this bush for lunch? Can you make an egg container in which an egg would be intact after falling 20 feet?

6. How and Why Questions: This type of question is often not useful because there are too many `How and Why" questions that have not been answered. And can not be answered by students at anything other than the recall level.

Let us revisit Eltsgeest in model/diagram form

According to the model (and Eltsgeest), productive questioning begins with something very 'concrete and proceeds toward the abstract systematically and sometimes very slowly. Essentially, Eltsgeest might argue that productive questioning ;begins with the teacher pouting at something and saying, "What can you tell me about this?" Next, the students are directed to take some actual measurements and then are asked to compare findings to previous learnings. Attention focusing, measuring and counting, and comparison questions are all lesson initiating questions that should be asked in this sequence as students review and reconstruct their knowledge base. Some ,tudeui,, and particularly secondary science teaching majors, argue that these questions are too easy to ask students because their students already know all the answer to these kinds of questions. Do the students really know the answers? Ask and find outl You may be surprised. Some teachers claim that they do not have time to on these simple questions; these teachers are fooling themselves! An important question for each of these teachers is, "How many of each of these questions should I or do I need to ask?" How long a warm up period is necessary? The answer is simple - - ask as many questions as is needed to make sure that the student is gaining the ability to answer the next question. The science of teaching tells teachers that they should ask all these types of questions in the sequence suggested. This science, artfully applied, which successfully moves the student along the question continuum, dictates the time requirement. Skilled artisan teachers who are working with successful upper level students may spend minimal time on lesson initiating questions. However, these teachers are among the first to argue for the need and use of lesson initiating questions.

The purpose for initiating questions is to prepare students to successfully engage in those activities that permit finding correct answers to the action questions that will follow. Action questions are generally questions in which the teachers ask the students to find out what will happen if a single variable is manipulated; e.g., lower the temperature, increase the amount of rainfall in a region. Essentially, the purpose of the action questions is to explore variables that are a subset of a larger problem that is to be explored in the future or the next question. Action questions should set the stage for problem posing questions and, if sufficient, the transition into the problem posing question should be smooth.

After exploring many action questions, the student may be led into a problem posing question. If the transition to the problem posing question is smooth and students continue into the productive activity, the teacher can assume that students have been involved in solving enough action questions to be ready for this next step. If not, back up and engage the students in more action type research before again attempting to engage in a problem (many variable) exploration.

Students engaged in problem-proposing inquiry can be asked the How and Why

Questions which exist at the top of the hierarchy. However, if the students have not progressed from the simple (concrete) to the complex (abstract) level of inquiry their responses to How and Why questions will be based upon simple recall (memory) and not upon thinking.

Summary

Most, and perhaps all students, have the ability to engage in and solve some relatively complex problems. To prepare students with that capability demands that they are engaged in inquiries that systematically move from simple (concrete) to complex (abstract). When all steps are included and the instruction is systematically arranged, most students are successful. However, when steps are skipped or eliminated, failure follows.

DOES (OR DID) YOUR DOG BITE?

The Hoosier Science Teacher, Vol 24 (1) September 1998, pp.13-17.