Chapter 15 page 364
engage in high-level comprehension strategies. To do this, students read a passage within a chapter and
then question each other about that text using question stems. A question stem is a question with blanks for
students to fill in as they ask each other questions. Examples are “Describe __ in your own words” and
“Explain why ___.”
In King’s (1994) study, the goal was to contrast the effects of two different sets of question stems.
The first set of question stems consisted of “lesson-based questions.” These questions focused on the
information in the text. Figure 15.4 shows the lesson-based questions used in the study. The second set of
question stems were “experience-based questions.” These questions (also shown in Figure 15.4) focused
both on the information in the text and on connections to students’ own prior knowledge. In Figure 15.4,
the questions that differed across the two conditions are in italics.
King studied 29 pairs of students (fourth and fifth graders) who were learning about human anatomy
and divided them into three groups. In all three conditions, students studied their human anatomy textbook
in pairs. One third of the students were taught to use the lesson-based questions. Another third of the
students were trained to use experience-based questioning. (The two types of questions are described
below.) Students in these two groups were given cue cards with question stems for the students to use when
they worked in pairs to ask each other questions. The final group of students—the control group—were not
trained to use any kind of questioning. They studied in pairs without using any cue cards.
To evaluate students’ comprehension, the posttests included two types of questions:
Inference questions, which require students to make inferences or to integrate new information with
knowledge that went beyond the information in a single lesson: i.e., “How is the cerebellum
different from the medulla?” “What would happen if we had no bones?”
Literal questions, which are based on information stated in a single lesson: i.e., “Describe in your
own words what a neuron is.” “How many bones are in the body?”
On a posttest given immediately after the fourth lesson, both groups of students who used guided
questioning did better than control students on both kinds of questions. On a delayed posttest given 7 days
later, students who used the experienced-based questions did best, students who used the lesson-based
questions were next best, and students in the control group performed the worst on both kinds of questions.
Overall, this study strongly supports the use of guided questions in pairs. Furthermore, it illustrates the
effectiveness of using questions that require students to integrate current knowledge with prior knowledge.