Reverse Teacher Questioning Strategy to Enlarge ZPD! ---- A New Approach to Improve Differentiated Classroom

Yunuo Feng

doi:10.71113/JCSIS.2025v2i1.1-18

Authors

Yunuo Feng Shenzhen International Foundation College, China

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.71113/JCSIS.2025v2i1.1-18

Keywords:

ZPD;Teacher Questioning;Differentiation

Abstract

Differentiated instruction has always been a major challenge for educators, and how to balance the learning tasks of diverse levels of learners is at the top of the list. This research is based on further exploration of the ZPD theory through quantitative analysis of the research methodology and in-depth one-on-one interviews with 12 students from an international high school in Shanghai, China. The research found that learners were not offended by tiered tasks itself, but they were offended by being assigned different tiers of tasks by their teachers and expected that they would have the choice of different learning tasks. For learning tasks, learners prefer more challenging tasks, and the reverse teacher questioning strategy, i.e. ‘hard-to-easy’ teacher questioning strategy, can effectively help learners to develop the ability to solve complex tasks. This constructed learning ability effectively teaches learners to ask questions, understand questions, analyse questions, and solve them. This ability can contribute to expanding the ZPD of learners with different abilities and narrowing the ability gap in a mixed-ability classroom.

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