Questions Posed by Pre-service Teachers to 5th-8th Grade Students and Their Level of Interactions

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Mabel

Study examines what types of questions pre-service teachers ask 5th–8th grade students and what interaction levels those questions produce. The relationship between question types and resulting interactions is also analyzed. Using a qualitative case study design, 50 pre-service teachers participate via criterion sampling and conduct clinical interviews with middle school students. Content analysis categorizes questioning patterns and interaction levels. Findings show a strong tendency toward factual questions, with interaction Level 3 most common among high-achieving pre-service teachers; other levels differ in questioning depth.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages22

Reading Time55 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Teacher Questioning and Interactions with Students

Methodology

Data Collection

Data Analysis

Results and Findings

Discussion and Recommendations

Questions Posed by Pre-service Teachers to 5th-8th Grade Students and Their Level of Interactions Nadide Yılmaz Karamanoğlu Mehmetbey University, Turkey, [nadideylmz70@gmail.com](nadideylmz70@gmail.com) This study was aimed to reveal what types of questions were asked by pre-service teachers and what kind of interactions they established with the 5th-8th grade students. The extent to which the questions the pre-service teachers asked are related to the interactions they established with the students was also investigated. Case study, one of the qualitative research method, was employed. 50 pre-service teachers selected by using criterion sampling participated in the study. They conducted clinical interviews with a 5th-8th grade students. Content analysis was adopted while analyzing the data. Results showed that, pre-service teachers largely tended to ask factual questions. In addition, while the interaction level of most of the pre-service teachers having a high achievement level with the students was found to be Level 3, the interaction levels of the pre-service teachers having a medium and low achievement level with the students were found tobe differentiated. When the interaction of the pre-service teachers through the questions they asked was evaluated, it was seen that the groups at Level 0 asked very few probing questions but a lot of factual questions. The percentages of the factual questions asked by the pre-service teachers at the other levels were found to be concentrated on the 2nd and 3rd quartiles and the percentages of probing questions asked by them were found to be concentrated on the 2nd quartile. Based on the results obtained, it is recommended to integrate such experiences into undergraduate programs so that pre-service teachers can encounter such experiences. Keywords: pre-service teachers, teacher questioning, interaction with students, middle school students, clinical interviews INTRODUCTION In students building mathematical knowledge, the questions asked by the teacher to attract attention play a critical role (Harrop & Swinson 2003; Moyer & Milewicz, 2002) . In addition to being seen asan effective teaching method, questioning also provides important learning opportunities for the teacher to have an insight about what and how the student thinks (Hannel, 2009) because teachers can encourage students to think and learn by asking effective questions (Harrop & Swinson, 2003; Ng et al., 2011) . The importance of teachers’ having knowledge about student thinking is also emphasized by institutions that give direction to mathematics education (National Council of Mathematics Teachers [NCTM], 2014) . Teachers who can ask effective questions are more successful at uncovering and analyzing student thinking (Moyer & Milewicz, 2002; Myhill & Dunkin, 2002) . At this point, researchers should explore what type of questions a teacher should ask in order to better understand and analyze the student thinking. Studies have shown that both teachers and pre-service teachers focus more on questions that require remembering rather than questions that serve the purpose of analyzing students’ thinking styles comprehensively (Myhill & Dunkin, 2005; Sahin & Kulm, 2008; Tienken et al., 2010; Zhang & Patrick, 2012) . In addition, observations indicated that more importance has been attached to the investigation of the types of questions asked by teachers and that less emphasis has been put on pre-service teachers’ knowledge and skills regarding asking questions (McDonough, et al., 2002; Moyer & Milewicz, 2002; Sahin, 2007) . However, revealing what type of questions the pre Citation: Yılmaz, N. (2023) . Questions posed by pre-service teachers to 5th-8th grade students and their level of interactions. Anatolian Journal of Education, 8(2), 113-134. [https://doi.org/10.29333/aje.2023.828a](https://doi.org/10.29333/aje.2023.828a) service teachers ask and how they interact with students in this process can offer import

FAQs

What questioning patterns and interaction levels were found?

Pre-service teachers largely asked factual questions. For interaction, Level 3 appeared most often among those with high achievement, while medium- and low-achievement groups showed differentiated interaction levels, with probing questions concentrated at Level 2.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Mabel