The main aim of this chapter is to inform people of how questions are a very important part of our daily lives. Without them communicating with each other would be virtually impossible. The chapter also looks at different types of questions and in what situations they are used.
There are three themes in the chapter which are teaching, medical professionals and crime. In this review I am going to focus on teaching as this is the theme that is of most interest to me.
Questioning is very important for young children as it helps them to explore, investigate and get a better understanding of the environment they are in. Having these questions answered with a positive response will improve the child’s confidence to ask questions and it will greatly benefit their learning and development. The chapter highlights the claim that teacher’s ask more questions than their pupils. A lot of research has been done to back up this claim. Research by Dillon (1982) showed that teachers ask approximately two questions each minute while pupils ask approximately one question per pupil every month. Before reading this I had never realised the extent of this problem.
Research by Tizard et al (1983) found that children ask a lot more questions when they are in their home environment. On average children ask 24 questions per hour at home compared to only 1.4 questions per hour at school. The big reason stated in this chapter to why children don’t ask questions in schools is because they are afraid of getting a negative reaction from their peers. I do not completely agree that this is the biggest reason. There are many different reasons why children might not want to ask questions at school. Some of these reasons are being shy or quiet, feeling they won’t get listened to by their teacher, they are worried about getting the answer wrong and they may not feel as relaxed as they do in their home environment when they are at school.
I came across some words in this chapter that I didn’t know the meaning of. I looked these words up in the Critical Dictionary of Education and have noted down the words and their meanings for future reference.
This chapter has got me thinking a lot more about questions and the impacts they can have on people. When working with children I am going to try to be aware of the amount of questions I am asking and will give children the opportunities and time for them to ask questions and not feel pressured into thinking they have to give the right answer.
References
Hargie, O. (2011) Skilled Interpersonal Communication: Research, Theory and Practice. 5th ed. London: Routledge.
