Advisor
Pulos, Steven
Committee Member
McDevitt, Teresa
Committee Member
Allen, Michael
Committee Member
Iyer, Vishwanathan
Department
Educational Psychology
Institution
University of Northern Colorado
Type of Resources
Text
Place of Publication
Greeley (Colo.)
Publisher
University of Northern Colorado
Date Created
8-1-2011
Genre
Thesis
Extent
169 pages
Digital Origin
Born digital
Description
Active student participation in college classroom discussion has been shown to have a positive impact on learning outcomes. Asking questions represents one way for instructors to encourage students to participate in class. This study explored college students' preferences for instructor questions and their experience of the way their instructors used questions in class. At a small public university, 232 undergraduate college students and eight instructors from three (e.g., Business, Nursing, Psychological Sciences) schools were surveyed. Analysis of the survey data revealed no significant differences between student preferences for instructor questions across the three schools, although there were some significant (p < 0.0025) differences between schools in students' experience of their instructors' use of questions. Students had preferences for questions that encouraged learning, but appeared sensitive to being embarrassed in front of their classmates. Students discriminated between those types of instructor question or questioning technique that promoted learning and those instructor behaviors that they associated with the risk of embarrassment. Instructors who use questions to encourage student participation should recognize that students have preferences for certain types of instructor question and for certain questioning techniques. Students' preferences may represent a factor of their willingness to respond to questions and actively participate in class.
Degree type
PhD
Degree Name
Doctoral
Language
English
Local Identifiers
Hill_unco_0161D_10103.pdf
Rights Statement
Copyright is held by author.
