Abstract

A process of philosophically grounded cross-disciplinary theory development and research application is modeled. A review of Hans-Georg Gadamer's concept of the question guides a review of question analysis and use in other disciplines. The concept of the question is taken from Gadamer's analysis as crucial to the nature of understanding. Student learning is identified as understanding, and the role of questions occurring to students in their experience of a lecture class is evaluated in terms of concepts suggested from the literature on questions. Two methodologies, grounded theory development and questionnaires, were used to generate and apply theoretical concepts of student question asking. Theory development depended on Hans-Georg Gadamer's concept of question asking from his theory of understanding and on relevant literature on question asking in logic, linguistics, psychology, education and culture. The theoretical narrative includes a conceptual category for each discipline. A six part questionnaire for college level classes applied concepts from the theoretical narrative. The questionnaires were administered in three classes: graduate, upper division, and lower division. Results confirm the importance of student questions within a lecture based instruction format and suggest the sensitivity of revealed student questions to instructor, goal, and format variables. Emphasis throughout is on examination of both verbalized and nonverbalized student question generation as a link to understanding. Questionnaire results are related to theoretical formulations to provide insights into question activity.