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ABSTRACT
This study aimed at: (1) identifying teachers' beliefs about high-order level questions questions (2) describing the practice of questioning related to high-order level questions (3) identifying the difficulties present in the practice of high-order questions (4) finding solutions the difficulties and (5) describing students' perceptions towards teacher's high-order level questions.
It was a qualitative research in the form of case study. The subjects of this study were an English teacher and 11th grade students. The data was from taped• classroom observation, documents, interview and questionnaire. All these data were complementary to each other.
The findings showed that: (1) the teacher's beliefs and the practice of questioning were congruent. The themes for analysis included question types and questioning strategies. The description on teacher's beliefs and practices also presented some other information on stages of learning and teachers' professional development that attributed to her beliefs. (2) The teacher participant stated that there were more questions on the level of knowledge and comprehension, rather than those on the higher level. However it was seen from the observation that higher-order thinking skills had been practiced in a sequenced and structured way. It was obvious that the teacher had tried to enhance development of high order thinking skills. (3) Although it was well-practiced in a sequence of tasks, difficulties were present. The teacher found difficulties in formulating high order level questions and expanding question-answer exchanges. The questions should be formulated in between, not too easy and not too difficult. Easy questions did not generate meaningful responses, while difficult questions were poorly responded. (4) The solution to these difficulties was making the questions hierarchical - sequenced. The teacher led the constructing of knowledge and skill by guiding and sometimes giving clues to the students that they had data to make responses. The second was that the teacher should develop her capacity. By doing so, the teacher participant could have the competence to manage a more-structured and sequenced question-answer talk. (5) Some practice of questioning were considered difficult, but some other were considered positive by the students. Students' perception information from their reflection on the questionnaire revealed that some questions were considered difficult. Viewing from the question• purposes, when given a list of questions that were frequently present in the classroom, students informed that most of the questions listed were meant to make students active in the classroom and invite participation. This study is expected to give some implications.
Keywords: beliefs, English learning, higher-order level questions, perception