Abstract
Science teachers ask questions to assess students' cognitive abilities and to promote student motivation in learning. Cognitive questions are usually divided into low-order and high-order types. According to the conceptual change model of learning, teachers can also use questions to facilitate the construction of knowledge by students. These ‘conceptual-change’ questions may be used to: probe students' conceptions; challenge students to resolve inconsistent views; guide students to establish relationships between existing knowledge and a new concept; and help students apply a newly acquired concept to different situations. The present study explores the impact of an initial teacher education programme with a strong focus on a conceptual change model of science instruction. Based on classroom observations, the types of questions asked by a group of teachers enrolled in this programme are reviewed, with special attention to the questions that aim at inducing conceptual change in students. Examples of low-order, high-order and conceptual-change questions are quoted to illustrate the variety of questions asked by the subjects.