”Man ska vara nyfiken” Lärares syn på elevers frågor i den naturvetenskapliga undervisningen

Abstract Students' questions play an important role in both teaching and learning science. However, in a traditional classroom, the teacher is the center of attention and poses questions to which students answer. The students seldom ask questions to which the teacher responds. The purpose of this paper is to examine teachers' attitudes towards student questions. This paper will also explore teachers’ views on the issues related to students’ questions for science education. Furthermore, the paper will discuss some strategies that teachers use to create a question-based classroom. We decided to conduct focus group interviews to examine teachers’ views on students’ questions, because the method is well-suited to understand a group’s attitude towards a phenomenon. Data were collected through focus group interviews with eight teachers. A number of themes were later identified by the responses received from the focus groups. Some of the study’s main conclusions are that teachers are well disposed toward a question-based teaching. At the same time, teachers' questions are given most attention in class. The participating teachers know that they should encourage students to ask questions. However, it seems as if the teachers are unsure of how to create classroom discourse that stimulates question-asking. According to the interviews, the demand of the national curriculum also has a powerful influence on their teaching practices. Our conclusion is that teachers need to develop strategies that will help students to ask their own questions. Collegial coaching and reflective dialogue may provide an environment to create meaningful change. Using collegial dialogue enables teachers to learn from their own experience through reflection and analysis. This type of reflection can also help teachers develop an understanding of methods for creating a student-centered classroom environment