Cognitive Correspondence Between Question/Statement and Response

Abstract

Analysis of teacher-student exchanges in high-school discussion classes revealed that only half of all student responses exhibited the same cognitive level as the teacher’s intervention. But questions and statements differed greatly in degree of correspondence with their respective responses. Whereas half of all answers to questions were at the same level as the question, half of responses to statements were at correspondingly higher levels. The findings are compared to other studies which together offer little support for the notion of cognitive correspondence between question and answer. Implications for theory and research on questions are noted.