摘要
课堂提问是教学的常用策略，也是研究有效课堂教学的核心。本文针对目前中小学课堂提问高认知思维水平的问题普遍很少，课堂提问缺乏难度和梯度这一现状，对课堂提问的认知导向进行了详细的阐述，指出课堂提问是学生认知思维发展的中介，提高教师课堂提问的思维水平是促进学生认知思维水平提高的有效途径。
本文始终贯穿“以学习者为中心”的教育观念——教育的目的就是要造就可持续发展的终生热爱学习的自主学习者，教育的重点是培养学习者的学习能力和认知思维能力。因此，作为“有效课堂教学的核心”，课堂提问再也不能像过去那样只限于对死记硬背、机械记忆的“实质性知识”考查上，而应以学习者为中心，更多地关注学习能力、认知思维能力的培养。
问题是思维的起点，问题所具有的思维水平有高低层次之分。根据Bloom(1956)的教育目标分类，记忆、领会及运用层次的问题属于低认知思维水平的问题；按Long和Sato(1983)的问题分类，展示性问题是为了练习语言而提出的，教师已知问题的答案，并且答案是确定的，封闭式的，目的是为了检测学生掌握知识的情况。可见，展示性问题属于低认知思维水平的问题。当然，我们并不一概否定低认知思维水平的问题，在外语课中，展示性问题有助于训练和提高学生的记忆能力和口语表达能力，但“频繁，费时而又明显缺乏思维价值的提问，其后果必然是降低学生的思维品质，限制其主动性的发展。”(申继亮、李茵，1998)
本文采用分析、举例、课堂观察、课堂录音、问卷调查的方法，对海口市第一中学三十节高中英语课的课堂录音进行了课堂提问类型及认知思维导向的分析，并以该校一百名学生的问卷调查为辅，发现低认知思维水平的问题(展示性问题)在高中英语课堂中被广泛、频繁地使用，而有利于启发学生的高认知思维水平、有利于运用目标语进行交际的参考性问题却少之又少。
高中英语教师在课堂提问中偏爱使用低认知思维水平的问题，原因是多方面的：由于升学率的利益驱动，顺应高考指挥棒的“应试教学”仍然大有市场；其次，长期以来，学生己认可教师在课堂中的中心地位，已习惯于师生间你问我答、单向的课堂交流模式；但笔者认为，对高认知思维水平问题(例如参考性问题)的回答的不易掌控，对教师驾驭课堂是一种挑战，这对教师自身素质提出了较高的要求，这也许是根本原因。因此，提高教师的自身素质，对教师进行有关课堂提问的认知思维水平的专业培训是非常必要的。
Questioning is one of the most common techniques used by teachers. It is the crucial part of the effective classroom teaching as well. There is a low frequency of high-level questions in the present primary and secondary school classrooms. The cognitive level of classroom questioning does not get enough attention it deserved. This paper is to discuss the cognitive orientation of English classroom questioning with an attempt to point out that effective questions serve well as scaffolding for students' cognition and that an increase of teachers' high-level questions leads to the development of students' cognitive abilities.
The author strongly upholds the "learner-centered" teaching concept. The final goal of our education is to cultivate life-long initiative learners instead of passive students of low abilities. Our education aims to cultivate students' cognitive abilities. Hence classroom questions should no longer be limited in the checking of mechanical memorization of the "notable knowledge". Instead, they should cater to the learners' need and pay more attention to the development of students' cognitive abilities.
Questions provoke students into thinking. Questions are of different cognitive levels. According to Bloom's taxonomy (1956), questions of memorization, comprehension and application are of low cognitive level. By Long and Sato (1983) questions were classified into display questions and referential questions. The former is raised for the purpose of language practice. The answer to this question is known and obvious. In other words, display questions belong to the low cognitive level. Sure enough, we never deny the role of helping students' memorization and fluency that the low-level cognitive display questions have played, though "a highly frequent and time-consuming low-level classroom questions will definitely result in the devaluation of students' cognitive abilities and the limitation of the development of their initiative." (申继亮、李茵, 1998 )
This paper has adopted different research methods such as analyzing data, giving examples, classroom observation, classroom recording and students' questionnaires. Through the research of thirty Senior English classes of Haikou No. 1 Middle School and the analysis of one hundred students' questionnaires, the author discovers that low-level questions i.e. display questions are widely and frequently used in the classrooms while there is a lack of high-level questions i.e. referential questions which are strongly believed to be useful for the communication of the target language.
The causes for the tendency of low-level questions in Senior High School English classroom are not simple: the benefits from catering to the National College Entrance Examination; the students' adaptation to the teacher-centered classroom. Above all, it is a great challenge for teachers to control their classroom once a high-level referential question is asked. Thereby, it is quite necessary to help improve teachers' language proficiency and to provide them with teacher training programs of professional classroom questioning skills.
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