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?
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:
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:
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:
Effective questioning can only happen when the above three criteria are fulfilled. Techniques of effective questioning is closely linked to Bloom’s Taxonomy, where Bloom has broken down human thinking into six levels:
There are three types of questions applicable to the various levels of thinking:
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 such as observation and comparison. It is also through this inquiry approach that students construct knowledge and understanding with reasoning.
NURTURING PROCESS SKILLS IN OUR STUDENTS What can be done to ensure that students are strengthening these process skills in them?
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.
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