Research Proposal Presentation Slides

1. UNDERSTANDING AND USES OF QUESTIONING BY MATHEMATICS
TEACHERS: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC INQUIRY
Research Plan Presentation
Niroj Dahal
M Phil in Mathematics Education
2014 Feb. Batch
March 20, 2017 (Monday)
Kathmandu University
School of Education
Hattiban, Lalitpur

2. Outline
• Who am I? (Background)
• Statement of the Problem
• Purpose of the Study
• Research Questions
• Rational of the Study
• Literature Review
• Research Methodology
• Quality and Ethical Standard
• Timeline
• References

3. Background
• Interesting to realize how difficult it is to say who I am
• (February 2011-February 2013) for Master Study and in February
2014 for my M Phil study
• Teaching mathematics in various secondary school in Kathmandu
valley
• Past and present teaching learning experience of mathematics have
been inspiring
• The most often employing strategies in my mathematics classroom
understanding and uses of questioning by mathematics teacher
• Being as a responsible and reflective mathematics teacher
• Responsibility is to help the students in strengthening students’
understanding in mathematics

4. Understanding
and Uses of
Questioning
From my
Lived
Experience
Students Level
Knowledge of
the types of
questions,
strategies and
the art of
questioning
Other
Experience

5. Research Issue
•Being as a socially responsible mathematics researcher
and teacher
•Worried about inadequate levels of students’
performance in mathematics
•May be due to inadequate understanding and uses of
questioning skills by mathematics teacher
•Learning difficulties in mathematics classroom (One is
questioning skills) (Muijs & Reyonds, 2005)
•The role of mathematics teacher is to develop the student
adequate personal self-confidence towards the learning of
mathematics

6. Research Issue
•Less strong content knowledge, problems in preparing
suitable questions for learners in mathematics (Danielson,
1996).

7. Purpose
• To explore the understanding and uses of
teachers’ questioning in the mathematics
classroom

8. Research Question
How do teachers understand and use questioning in
mathematics?

9. Rationale
a. Focal point is the performance of the students in
mathematics
b. Being as a mathematics teacher and teacher
educator, educational researcher for a long time,
working to uplift the student personal self-
confidence in mathematics
c. Teachers often fail to ask suitable questions in the
mathematics , they used to make the prior
assumption
d. Eager to contribute a body of knowledge from my
lived experience.

10. Significance of the Study
•Highly relevant for my future professional career
•Helpful for mathematics teachers to progress their
questioning skills in the mathematics
•Helpful to textbook writers and curriculum
developers to comprise diverse levels of
questioning in mathematics
•Facilitate teacher educators to progress the
questioning skills of teachers in mathematics
•Facilitate mathematics curriculum developers,
question papers designer, and textbook writers to
improve their questioning skills

11. Delimitation
•Delimited in classroom practice such as
remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing,
evaluating and creating

12. LITERATURE REVIEW
• Thematic Reviews
– History of Questioning in Mathematics
– Use of Questions in the Mathematics Classroom
– Teacher’s Role in Choosing Questions
– Teachers’ Beliefs on Questioning
– Students Perception Regarding Questioning to Mathematics
Teacher
• Theoretical Review
– Categories of Questioning Skills in Mathematics (Low and High
Level) (Bloom’s Taxonomy) (Anderson, 2001)
• Empirical Reviews

13. Research Gap
• Conducted on utilizing commonly used
research instruments particularly observation
and questionnaire
• Incorporate research instruments including
interviews, classroom observation
• Till the date research on understanding and
use of questioning skills in mathematics has
not carried out in Nepal by using of qualitative
approaches

14. Theoretical Referents
Social Constructivism:
•Examining communication between teachers and
students in a mathematics classroom
•Clear perspective on the higher cognitive processes
that can develop through social interaction for
understanding and uses of questioning in Mathematics
•Emphasizes the idea that knowledge of a particular
phenomenon is “generated and maintained through
collective human action, thought, discourse, or other
social practices” (Collin, 2013).

15. Learning Theory Based on Voigt
(1992)
•Assumption that mathematical learning and teaching are
linked through classroom interaction which requires
negotiation of meaning
•“negotiation of meaning” can be defined as the specific
means of classroom interactions by which teachers and
students form opinions, criticize, explain, test, and refine
ideas and procedures in mathematics lessons (Voigt,
1992)

17. Research Methodology
Philosophical Consideration
• Subjective ontology and inductive reasoning to
take the stance of the insider perspective
• Blending the experiences and values to collect
narrative data
• Ontology: Different perspectives, questioning
skills in mathematics also differs from teacher to
teacher (multiple realities)
• Epistemology: Highly towards subjectivism (there
are several factors that affect questioning in
mathematics for students)

18. Research Paradigms
• Research paradigms are framework (Lincoln &
Guba, 1985) assumptions about the nature of
reality and basic set of viewpoint
• Research Approach: Qualitative
• Research Paradigm: Blend the interpretivism and
postmodernism research paradigms
• Postmodernism: Aware of the topic from
multiple perspectives and contextual truths
• Interpretivism: During interpreting subjective
data for meaning making(personal, participants
and theoretical interpretation)

19. Research Design
• Philosophical and research paradigms are exploring
multiple truths that incorporated with an ethnographic
case study research which emphasizing on teacher
questioning skills in mathematics (Cohen et al., 2007)
• Ethnography:
– Collecting and analysing data
– To build up holistic picture of my issue
– To understand the experience of questioning skills by
mathematics teacher
– Concern with the subjective data which is gathered through
ethnographic approach
– The study of lived experiences of the research participants on
the basis of their background, context and beliefs

20. Continue…
• Selection of the Research Site: One school
from each district Lalitpur, Kathmandu, and
Bhaktpur
• Nature and Source of Data:
– Primary data will be generated from interviews
and observation
– Generate data from cover and uncover classroom
practices, evidences, stories and experiences of
mathematics teachers

21. Techniques and Tools of Data
Generation
• Classroom observations, and interview (Kombo,
2010)
• Classroom Observations:
– To classify teachers’ questions, revised Bloom’s (2001)
taxonomy of the cognitive domain will use to illustrate
the cognitive level of teachers’ questions as a way to
understand and report the observations
– Questions are classified into six types: remembering,
understanding, applying, analysing, evaluation, and
creating
– Low and High level questions (Anderson, 2001)

22. Continue…
• Interview
– Gather in-depth information about teachers’
questioning in mathematics and to articulate their
ideas and opinions on teachers’ questioning
• Data Analysis and Interpretation
– Data analysis is my attempt to summarize collected
data in a dependable and accurate manner
– Data interpretation is my attempt to find meaning in
the data, or making sense of the data (to construct a
new knowledge)
– Data will analyze until saturation is reach (Glaser &
Strauss, 1967).

23. Quality Standard
o Burden and responsibility to carry out watchful study
o Triple threats of qualitative research namely representation,
legitimating and praxis (Lincoln,2011)
• Crisis of representation: Various ways for collecting
information
• Crisis of legitimating: Richness and in-depth of explanation
• Crisis of praxis: Various theoretical perspectives in
questioning
o Trustworthiness and authenticity (Guba & Lincoln, 1994) (re-
conduct and re-transcribe interview and observation until
saturation)

24. Ethical Consideration
• Johnson and Christensen (2008, p. 101) suggests
that ethics are “principles and guidelines that
help us uphold the things we value”
• Permission letter from the Kathmandu University
• Ethical honesty as on the originality of its
discoveries (Walliman, 2011)
• Confidential and the information is only for
research use and objectives of the study are
explained
• Maintain privacy

25. Timeline
• Proposal defense: March 20, 2017
• Field visit and data Collection: Till May, 2017
(Ongoing process till saturation)
• Initial draft: Till June, 2017
• First draft: July 15, 2017
• Final draft: August 1, 2017
• Research defense: September, 2017
• Convocation: December, 2017

26. References
Anderson, L. W., & David, R. K. (Eds.). (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision
of bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. Allyn and Bacon. Boston, MA (Pearson Education
Group).
Blosser, P. (2000).How to ask the right questions. Arlington, VA: National Science Teacher Association.
Bradley, M. (2007).Ask and you will receive: How question types influences quantity and quality of online
discussions. British Journal of Educational Technology, 39, 888-900.
Cobb, P., Wood, T., Yackel, E., & McNeal, B. (1992). Characteristics of classroom mathematics traditions: An
interactional analysis. American Educational Research Journal, 29, 573-604.
Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2007). Research method in education (6th ed.). London: Taylor and
Francis Group.
Cooper, J.M. (1986).Classroom Teaching Skills. Lexington, mass D.C: Heath.
Creswell, J.W. (2003) Research Design: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed method approaches (2nd ed.).
London, UK: Sage Publications Ltd.
Dean, J. (1996). Beginning teaching in secondary school. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Dillon, J. T. (1982). The effects of questioning in education and other enterprises. Journal of Curriculum
Studies, 14, 127-152.
Luitel, B. C. (2009). Culture, worldview and transformative philosophy of mathematics education in Nepal: A
cultural-philosophical inquiry (Unpublished doctoral thesis). Science and Mathematics Education
Centre, Curtin University, Perth, Australia.

27. Continue…
Luitel, B.C. (2013). Mathematics as an im/pure knowledge system: Symbiosis (w)holism and synergy
in mathematics education. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education 10 (6).
Taiwan: Springer ISSN 1571-0068. doi: 10.1007/s10763-012-9366.
Pant, B. P. (2015). Pondering on my beliefs and practices on mathematics, pedagogy, curriculum and
assessment (Unpublished M Phil Dissertation). Kathmandu University, School of Education.
Martino, A. M., & Maher, C. A. (1999) Teacher questioning to promote justification and
generalization in mathematics: What research practice has taught us. Journal of Mathematical
Behavior, 18(153-78).
Seime, K. (2002). An exploration of the relationship among type of teachers questions, student
proficiency and wait time. A case study. Ethiopian Journal of Education, 2 (1) 32 – 19.
Thapa, A. B. (2016). Intelligence: Myth or reality? An auto-ethnography inquiry for social justice and
improvement (Unpublished M Phil Dissertation). Kathmandu University, School of Education.
Voigt, J. (1992). Negotiation of mathematics meaning in classroom processes: Social interaction and
learning mathematics. In L. Steffe, P. Nesher, P. Cobb, G. Goldin, and B. Greer (Eds.), Theories
of mathematical learning (pp. 21-50). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The development of the higher psychological processes.
London: Harvard University Press.
Wragg, E. C., & Brown, G. (2001). Questioning in the Secondary School. London: Sage Publication.
Newton, L. D. (2002). Teachers' questioning - it’s potential to support understanding in the primary
school. Studies in teaching and learning. University of Newcastle Upon Tyne: School of
Education.