Marshall Cavendish Education

It is almost impossible to be a good thinker but a poor questioner. Questioning and answer-seeking drive our
thoughts, and the kind of questions we ask steers us in a certain direction. Unconsciously, we often find ourselves
in the realm of questions and answers in our daily lives. Suppose, we find ourselves in an environment with
someone with the flu, we would ask ourselves:

Will I get sick sitting next to the person who is sneezing and coughing all day?

What are the symptoms of flu? Are germs airborne? How long can germs survive in the air?

The list goes on...

If we limit the scope of our questions, we will find ourselves also limited in the kinds of answers we seek or find.
Asking questions which only lead to a yes or no answer are naturally inhibiting. Open-ended questions have far
more value as they enable the person who answers the questions to go through an important questioning
process which allows him to:

• Compare
• Communicate
• Infer
• Predict
• Analyse
• Generate possibilities
• Evaluate
• Formulate hypothesis

This set of skills is exactly the essential process skills that are found in the Singapore Primary Science Syllabus
today.

What are process skill and why the need for these skills?

In the new MOE 2014 Primary Science Syllabus, these skills and processes are well integrated into key concepts
and essential takeaways through inquiry questions to allow students to find answers to things and phenomena
around them. These skill sets are in turn classified into three different categories under communication which are
essential features of inquiry, unlike in the previous science syllabus which has no such distinction:

• Question
• Evidence
• Explain/Connect

Table taken from MOE 2014 Primary Science Syllabus p.8

There are 10 process skills in focus encompassed by the communication skill in the local science syllabus. The
skills and processes shown in the table above are seen as part of the total process of scientific inquiry. Through
inquiry learning of the what (content) and the how (process), information can be turned into useful knowledge
to understand the world around us.

How does the art of questioning develop process skills

Questions play an important role in the classroom. They are a frequent component of classroom talk that can
influence the type of cognitive processes students go through in constructing their scientific knowledge. They are
necessary for determining the nature of discourse during science instruction, and undoubtedly, they are the key
to keep students engaged, challenged and intrigued.

However, asking questions to elicit productive thinking in students is not as easy as it seems, especially when
students choose to be a passive learner in science lessons that discusses topics that do not interest them.
What can be done to overcome this challenge? How can students be developed to become good thinkers
and questioners?

First, it is the role of teachers to be able to:

• integrate content knowledge into a conceptual framework of interconnecting concepts
• pique curiosity and interest in students
• scaold learning at an appropriate pace to maintain, if not increase the level of curiosity and interest of the students

Eective questioning can only happen when the above three criteria are fulfilled. Techniques of eective
questioning is closely linked to Bloom’s Taxonomy, where Bloom has broken down human thinking into six levels:

• Knowledge
• Comprehension
• Application
• Analysis
• Synthesis
• Evaluation

How does the art of questioning develop process skills

Questions play an important role in the classroom. They are a frequent component of classroom talk that can
influence the type of cognitive processes students go through in constructing their scientific knowledge. They are
necessary for determining the nature of discourse during science instruction, and undoubtedly, they are the key
to keep students engaged, challenged and intrigued.

However, asking questions to elicit productive thinking in students is not as easy as it seems, especially when
students choose to be a passive learner in science lessons that discusses topics that do not interest them.
What can be done to overcome this challenge? How can students be developed to become good thinkers
and questioners?

First, it is the role of teachers to be able to:

• integrate content knowledge into a conceptual framework of interconnecting concepts
• pique curiosity and interest in students
• scaold learning at an appropriate pace to maintain, if not increase the level of curiosity and interest of the students

Eective questioning can only happen when the above three criteria are fulfilled. Techniques of eective
questioning is closely linked to Bloom’s Taxonomy, where Bloom has broken down human thinking into six levels:

• Knowledge
• Comprehension
• Application
• Analysis
• Synthesis
• Evaluation

There are three types of questions applicable to the various levels of thinking:

1. Preliminary (usually asked at the beginning of a lesson)
   – to assess prior knowledge and the basic understanding of the subject matter
2. Probing (usually asked during learning) – to evaluate learning, address misconceptions, and reinforce
   understanding of concepts
3. Possibilities (usually asked after lesson has been internalised) - to test application of concepts to the
   real-world context

This successful art of questioning is how process skills are developed in the students who eventually will become
good thinkers and questioners.

How are skills and process related to the essential features of inquiry?

To understand how all this relates to the new changes in the science syllabus, we can look at the new features in
the syllabus format. The use of essential takeaways and key inquiry questions has been added to highlight the
teaching and learning of the big ideas in the thematic approach. This inquiry learning of process skills also
resonates in the textbook as students go through the topic.

Compare the following table found in the syllabus framework under the topic of ‘Cycles’ to the unique features
found in the textbook:

An excerpt from My Pals are HERE! Science textbook

Key inquiry questions are available to get students thinking about the science concepts in the chapter.
Once students have studied and understood the examples from the textbook, they will go through several
inquiry-based activities (e.g.: experiments) which require them to investigate, gather evidence, explain and
connect to what they have learnt in class through the examples shown in the textbook. It is through this inquiry
process that students exercise process skills such as observation and comparison. It is also through this inquiry
approach that students construct knowledge and understanding with reasoning.

An excerpt from My Pals are Here! Science activity book

Nurturing process skills in our students

What can be done to ensure that students are strengthening these process skills in them?

Encourage them to be an active learner

Most students are capable of searching for answers to their questions, but how many are actually interested in
the Science behind the answers? Are they challenging themselves by validating the answers to their questions?
Encourage them to find out the Science behind the answers. It is observed that learners who are mentally
engaged will be able to explain observations and be more interested to find out more when he/she gets down
into doing it. Such students will also be able to better appreciate the value of scientific inquiry.

Learn to let go

While it is important to ensure that students master the techniques to answering a particular question, too much
guidance can evolve into over-reliance. This should put educators on red alert as it inhibits thinking and growth.
For example, in a group experiment setting, encourage students to take the initiative to complete the tasks
instead of relying on others for answers. Instead of merely following the procedures in a given experimental task
written out in a “cookbook” style which require students to carry out the tasks unthinkingly, challenge students to
redesign the given experiment or even an entirely new experiment. This process will help students understand the
original experiment thoroughly as they go through the course of listing the steps to conduct the experiment,
applying scientific methods, and thinking through each step to consider any other variables involved that will
aect the experimental outcome (Barry et al, 1999).

Keep a Science journal

A journal helps to keep track of their learning. By recording their questions and answers about the world around
them, they will be encouraged to stay observant to feed their inquisitiveness. Tomkins & Tunniclie also observed
that diary writers tend to build more confidence in their interpretations, engage in intellectual debates with
themselves over the plausibility of their explanations and ask questions that are more quantifiable (Tomkins &
Tunniclie, 2001).

Ask questions

Constantly ask open-ended questions about the world around them. Why does the sky turn dark again today?
Why do leaves fall o a plant? How can you cool the drink faster? Rest assure that you may not need to always
have an answer because the best answer will come from the child who bothers to search for it (using the
inquiry-based approach)!

Process skills are as important as content knowledge for one cannot occur without the other. Process skills are
life skills, an integral part of our lives that seeks to help us make better and well-informed decisions. Every day,
we are subconsciously using these skills to stretch our learning as we link prior and new knowledge. It is by using
these skills that we are able to construct new conceptual understanding, allowing learning to happen.