A Qualitative-Content-Analytical Approach to the Quality of Primary Students’ Questions: Testing a Competence Level Model and Exploring Selected Influencing Factors

Abstract

There is a consensus on the importance of students’ questions in educational contexts due to diverse potentials to promote learning. Engaging with students’ questions in primary school is highly relevant as it fosters critical thinking skills, encourages curiosity, and cultivates a deeper understanding of subject matter. At the same time, research findings agree that students’ questions about the subject matter are rare. Research on the quality of students’ questions in the classroom mostly focuses on secondary or higher education. However, when it comes to the quality of students’ questions in primary schools, there is a research gap, although it is possible to use questions in primary school lessons to improve learning processes. Against this background, the present study takes up a competence level model for assessing the quality of students’ questions in General Studies and evaluates its use in a qualitative–explorative setting on the questions from a non-probabilistic random sample (n = 477). The results of the analysis are further used to look for indications of the influences of the grade level and the subject matter on competence levels. Further, they also allow conclusions to be drawn for primary school teacher education. The competence level model in modified form turns out to be a reliable instrument for assessing the competence levels of questions. In addition, a weak positive correlation was found between the level of competence levels and the students’ grade level. The conclusion is that there is a need for tailored support across different grade levels. The detected lack of consistent connection with the subject matter highlights the importance of diverse instructional approaches.