REASONS FOR STUDENTS QUESTIONING: PRELIMINARY RESULTS FROM A RESEARCH DEVELOPED IN THE SCOPE OF AN OPEN COURSE FOR TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

This work aims at presenting the preliminary results of a study group participating in the Open Course on ‘Pupils Questions in Science Education’ developed in the scope of the Multilateral KA3 Project SoNetTE: Social Networks in Teacher Education. SoNetTE is developing online educational open courses in order to promote the professional development of teachers based on reflection and research on educational topics

The developed study analyzes the perceptions of students and teachers about the importance of students and identifies reasons enabling its formulation or, inversely, justifying a possible avoidance of the same formulation. Previous studies on the topic have shown that students' questions are infrequent, usually predominating the teacher's questions. However, there is also evidence pointing to the positive impact that students questions can have on their motivation and their own learning. This justify the interest in understanding the reasons that may Foster questioning but also those that can be potential barriers. 85 students of the 3rd cycle of Portuguese basic education, aged 13 to 16 years old participated in the study, as well as 8 teachers from elementary and secondary education. Students responded to an open-ended questionnaire on the topic, focusing on the nature and reasons for the questioning or possible barriers to the process. Teachers were interviewed, the interview guide covering the same topics of the questionnaire. Data content analysis showed that both students and teachers considered that the students ask questions mainly to clarify doubts and better understand. However, both students and teachers considered that students questioning is inhibited by shame, fear of being ridiculed, lack of interest, motivation. The results point so for different reasons for the formulation or inhibition of students questioning, involving mainly cognitive and motivational, in the former, and social aspects in the second.