Questioning Patterns in STEM Learning: A Case Study

This chapter documents the types of questions raised by both teachers and students when engaging in integrated STEM problem solving and the level of reasoning of their responses. Questions play a critical role in creative thinking, conceptual learning, and problem-solving. Using deductive coding, we identified questions asked over the course of 36 lessons where Grade 8 students presented their ideas after engagement with integrated STEM problem solving and designed prototypes using one of two teaching approaches. The questions were then coded as ontic (simple or complex), causal or epistemic. Subsequentially, the responses of students to the questions were coded as pre-structural, uni-structural, multi-structural, relational, or extended abstract according to the SOLO taxonomy. Although we did not find statistical differences in the questions raised between approaches, our results show that ontic questions were the most used during integrated STEM problem solving while epistemic questions were least used. Students’ responses displaying transfers of knowledge at the extended abstract level of understanding were least evident out of all the levels of the SOLO taxonomy. Our findings support prior research that basic ontic questions are the most commonly used in class.