studies of society and environment: strategies and questions to promote thinking in sose

The material on these pages has been prepared to supplement lectures, workshops and text for students enrolled at James Cook University in ED3001 Early childhood curriculum and teaching studies 1 and ED3101 Primary curriculum and teaching studies 1

The type of strategies and questions that teachers ask during active social investigations can both promote the children's thinking and provide the children with a model so they can ask their own questions. Following are some guides that can help teachers develop their questioning skills in SOSE Questions to ask of data (see pages 93 - 100 in the chapter "Planning investigations" in your text book) Questions based on Bloom's taxonomy: cognitive domain Questions based on Bloom's taxonomy: affective domain Questions to develop reflective and metacognitive thinking All sorts of questions Specifc versus general questions - what's your purpose.

Questions based on Bloom's taxonomy: cognitive domain Adapted from: Wilson, J and Wing Jan, L. (1993) Thinking for themselves. Melbourne: Eleanor Curtain.

Thinking process involved	explanation	example of question
knowledge	requires memory, recognition or recall only	What do you know about work choices? What did you find out about X's job?
comprehension	requires rephrasing, rewording, comparison of information	What are three points that the three waiters we interviewed said in common?
application	requires the application of knowledge to new context	What would it be like to work as a waiter in the 22nd century?
analysis	requires the use of information to identify motives or causes, to determine evidence and draw conclusions	Think about changes in careers in the food service area over the years. Why have these changes occurred?
Synthesis	requires the putting together of information to make predictions or to solve problems.	What advice would you give to help making decisions about being a waiter?
evaluation	requires the use of information to form values make judgements and offer opinions	what options do we have for improving working conditions for waiters etc? which option might be the most effective?

Questions based on Bloom's taxonomy: affective domain Adapted from: Cecil, N. L. (1995) The artof inquiry: Questioning strategies for K - 6 classrooms. Winipeg: Peguis.

Question Type	Response Behaviours	Eliciting Question Starters
Receiving (attending)	Awareness of environment Willingness to receive	Which would you prefer ....? Identify the person who ....? Listen to this song ...? Did you see the news last night where ...?
Responding	Acquiescence in responding Willingness to respond. Satisfaction in responding	Do you like to ....? What you like to tell us your opinion about ....? Will you have a go at ....?
Valuing	Acceptance of a value Preference for a value Commitment	Defend your stance on ...? Do you feel responsible for .....? Rank order your preferences ... Do you agree or disagree that ..?
Organising	conceptualisation of a value. Organisation of a value system	In your opinion, is ...? As you view the ....., should we ....? In your own words explain the issue .....? Have you weighed the alternatives?
Characterisation	Generalised set. A philosophy of life. Values are internalised	What will you do about ...? Are you willing to ....? what is your philosophy on ....? Which beliefs are important in your life?

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Questions to develop reflective and metacognitive thinking Adapted from: Wilson, J and Wing Jan, L. (1993) Thinking for themselves. Melbourne: Eleanor Curtain.

TYPE OF QUESTION	EXAMPLE BASED ON LOCAL HISTORY TOPIC	EXAMPLE BASED ON TOURISM IN THE LOCAL AREA
Quantity	How many differnt ways do children travel to our school ?	How many people in our region work in the tourist industry?
Change	How did our parents travel to school?	How has the increase in tourist numbers impacted on our local environmnet?
Prediction	What would have happened if the bus company had closed down?	What do you think attract tourists to the region in 2010?
Point of view	How would you have voted on the decision to build the shopping centre?	If you were a tourist in our region, what would you tell your friends about your visit here?
Personal involvement	How do you feel about the old buildings in our town?	How do you feel about the presence of large numbers of tourists in the local area?
Comparative association	Are there differences between the ways young people and older people view the changes in our community?	How does the tourist industry here compare with the tourist industry in other Queensland regions?
Valuing questions	How should the community decide which heritage sites should be maintained?	Should tourist developments that provide employment take priority over environmental conservation

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All sorts of questions

Purpose	Examples
Focus	What is it that puzzles you? What did you find interesting?
Clarification	I don't quite understand what you mean? Could you explain it to me? Do you think that L means ....?
Reasons	Why did you say that? What reasons do you have for that?
Connections	How does that fit with what N said? Is that the same as what G was getting at?
Distinctions	How is that different from J's idea?
Implications	What can we work out from that? What does that tell us?
Assumptions	How do you know that? Why do you think that? What have you based that on?
Testing	How could you work out if that was true?
Information gathering	What do we know about this?
Examples	What would be an example of this?
Counter-examples	Can you think of a situation where that wouldn't work? When wouldn't that happen?
Consistency	Is that the same as what you said earlier, or have you changed your mind? Does that fit with what we said earlier? Can you say both ..... and ....?
Speculation	Can anyone think of how that might happen?
Relevance	How does this help us?
Alternatives	How else could we think about that? What if someone said...? There are some people who think that ...., what do you think?
Degrees of commitment	Are you saying that that always happen? Do you think that X is more likely than Y or are they equally possible?
Summarising	What have we found out so far? Where have we got to?
Listening strategies	Did I understand you to say ...? Am I right that you said .....?
Participation	What do you think about this? What do others think? Who agrees?
I'm not an expert here	I'm not sure? I don't know. What do you think?

Specifc versus general questions - what's your purpose. In some activities, you may want to ask very general questions that allow you to see what the children are concerned with and which allow children opportunity to respond in their own ways. these general questions may be appropriate in the orientating stages of an active social investigation unit. In other activities, questions need to be specific so that they help students develop more effective critical and analytical thinking skills. these questions are especially approriate in the data collection and analysis stage of active social investigation.

Examples

Specific question General question What evidence do you have to support your ideas about that? How do you know that? What aspects of that video remind you of your own life? Did you like that video? How could you apply the concept of recycling to environmental planning in our school? What do you know about recycling? Could you explain how living in a city might differ from living in a rural area? What do think about living in the country?

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