Teacher questioning and interaction patterns in classrooms facilitated with differing levels of constructivist teaching practices

Abstract

This research investigated the impact of teacher questions, question types, and interaction patterns that coincide with high and low levels of constructivist teaching practices. Through both quantitative and qualitative methods the findings revealed that teachers facilitating classrooms with high levels of constructivist teaching practices (HLCTP) were very active as they asked a significantly greater number of questions compared to teachers facilitating classrooms with low levels of constructivists teaching practices (LLCTP). In addition, teachers facilitating with HLCTP used a significantly greater number of open‐ended questions when compared with other types of questions (closed‐ended questions and task‐oriented questions). Closed‐ended questions were found in the HLCTP classrooms as teachers were concerned with focusing students on completing investigations, but open‐ended questions were more often found with the aim of promoting student actions attuned to knowledge construction.