Is Dialogic Questioning Possible in Social Studies Classrooms?

Many scholars agree that students should be regularly engaged in dialogues that require them to question texts, values, or issues. We observed social studies classrooms in secondary schools serving urban, rural, and suburban students of different socioeconomic backgrounds in New York to learn what kinds of questioning strategies teachers were using and whether their questioning supported dialogue. In this paper we identify and give examples of three patterns of questioning we observed. Then, we explain how frequently these forms of questioning were used in high track and heterogeneous classes and in schools serving different socioeconomic communities. While we found that dialogic questioning can and does occur in classrooms, students in heterogeneous tracks and lower-income schools appear to have few experiences with dialogic questioning that would help them make connections and think critically about course content and texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]