The effects of functional moves in teacher questioning on students’ contextualization of mathematical word problem solving

Posing purposeful questions is one of the most effective teaching practices (NCTM in Principles to actions: Ensuring mathematics success for all. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2014). Although the types and functions of teacher questioning have been abundantly studied, research on the role of teacher questioning in students’ contextualization process as they solve word problems is rather scarce. This study was conducted to investigate the function of six elementary preservice teachers’ questioning, its impact on students’ contextualization, as well as the successes and difficulties of enacting questioning. The collected data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings indicated that the implementation of task clarification (TC) moves effectively enhanced contextualization only when students possessed a relatively strong sense of agency while solving word problems. Furthermore, when students’ attentional focus was not appropriately redirected by the functional moves, including procedural understanding (PU), making connections (MC), the rationale behind a strategy (RA), and an alternative strategy (AS), their understanding of the contextual features and construction of mathematical relationships in word problem solving could not be refined. Implications for field experience design and future research on the quality of teacher questioning in mathematics teacher education programs are discussed.