Effects of Guided Cooperative Questioning on Children's Knowledge Construction

Abstract

Thirty-four fifth graders in three conditions worked in pairs to learn science material presented in classroom lessons. To stimulate discussion, they asked each other questions and answered their partners' questions. Partners in two guided questioning conditions were trained to generate thought-provoking questions and then used either very structured questions such as “Why is … important?” and “What would happen if … ?” (highly elaborated question stems) or signal words such as why, what, and how (less elaborated question stems) to guide their question generation. Partners in an unguided questioning condition were simply directed to ask and answer each other's questions without guidance. Children who used highly elaborated question stems outperformed those using less elaborated stems and the unguided questioners on (a) explanations provided during discussion, (b) posttest comprehension, and (c) knowledge mapping. Findings indicate that in cooperative discussion contexts structured guidance in asking thought-provoking questions elicits explanations that, in turn, mediate learning.