Did the Teacher Ask the Right Questions? An Analysis of Teacher Asking Ability in Stimulating Students’ Mathematical Literacy

Abstract

This study was conducted to identify the structure of the questions asked by teachers to stimulate students' mathematical literacy and to compare the questioning skills of PMRI workshop participants and nonparticipants. This study used a qualitative approach. The teachers were asked to conduct and record the lesson in this study. The teacher’s questions were coded according to their cognitive level, question structure, and activity type. The results obtained showed that teacher A mostly asked at the level of cognitive knowledge (74.3%) and closed questions (90%). In contrast, Teacher B asked relatively evenly distributed questions at the level of cognitive knowledge, understanding, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation (24.9%, 20.2%, 18.3%, 15.4%, 11.6%, and 9.6%). The results showed that Teacher A emphasized more on the closed question structure (90%) while Teacher B was more varied (45% closed questions & 55% open questions). From the interview results, teacher B stated that he was used to applying coaching techniques when conducting learning. So, teacher B was accustomed to asking questions to stimulate children’s thinking.