The relationship between teaching and learning conceptions, preferred teaching approaches and questioning practices

Abstract

This paper focuses on the relationship between preferential teaching approach (PTA) and the concept of teachers' questioning practices (TQP), as part of a large‐scale three‐year project aimed at developing the scholarship of teaching and learning at one Portuguese university. In order to contribute to understandings of how teachers' questioning is connected to teachers' concepts and motivations, two dimensions were considered for analysis: (1) teachers' main changes in their PTA and TQP, when lecturing to undergraduates, during the three years of collaboration; and (2) differences in teachers' PTA and TQP when lecturing students at different academic levels. Data were gathered through observation of master and undergraduate lectures, during the 2009/2010 academic year. All lectures were audio‐taped. Fifty per cent of these were fully transcribed and analysed considering TQP. Teachers responded twice to a Portuguese version of the revised approaches to teaching inventory, one for each academic level, and were also interviewed. The results revealed that the four professors maintained their initial PTA and the corresponding teaching and learning conceptions for both dimensions of analysis. However, looking at their TQP some changes were observed. These results could imply that it is ‘easier’ to ‘modify’ (over time) and switch (between academic levels) particular teacher practices, such as questioning, than their global PTA, rooted in specific teaching/learning conceptions. The findings of this longitudinal study, bridging two areas of research, enabled recommendations to be made regarding the design of training strategies to enhance reflection on high‐quality teaching and learning processes.

Keywords:

• preferential teaching approaches
• teaching and learning conceptions
• questioning
• higher education
• biology
• dialogic interaction

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the financial support of Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal (SFRH/44611/2008). We thank professors A. Almeida, A. Correia, F. Gonçalves and S. Mendo, from the Department of Biology of the University of Aveiro, Portugal, and all the students involved in this research. We are also grateful to Dr Carol Evans and Dr Maria Kozhevnikov, for their helpful comments on a previous version of this paper.