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Taking answers from a representative of each group is also less threatening than directing specific questions to individuals. Planning for questioning It is clear from the preceding discussion that questioning is a complex and important activity. Yet, it is often not thought through carefully before the lesson or considered as something to be improved and developed. Planning is vital, especially for the novice who will not have internalized this skill. Planning involves identifying what the learners need to pay attention to, and then selecting key questions, thinking about the purpose and sequencing of the questions, and strategies for distribution.

Such things seem, to common sense, to be so obvious that there is no need to explain them. It is typical of the sciences that they shake the foundations of knowledge in this way. The act and art of explaining to a class is much less discussed than the scientific ideas to be explained. This chapter discusses some of our research on the nature of science teachers’ explanations (Ogborn et al. 1996). In particular, we will focus here on what it is that drives explanations, which we have characterized as ‘opening up differences’.

But after that there may be more general discussion within the class. The single most important criterion for helping this to happen is that the teacher has no hidden agenda of a ‘right answer’ to be reached. So, the concepts and theories talked about may not be what the teacher expects. The purpose of this kind of classroom talk cannot be to learn accepted science. I sometimes doubt if it even makes the pupils’ own ideas clearer as Driver and Oldham claim [9]. It does, however, fulfil some very important functions: 1 2 3 It demonstrates that different interpretations do exist.