An investigation of the nature of questions asked in the classroom: Teacher gender in focus

In this study the classroom discourse of ten teachers from both genders (five male and five female) was investigated. I wanted to know which type of question is mostly asked in the classroom. Also the study wanted to find out if there is significant differences between male and female English teachers in terms of questions they ask. In total 30 sessions of instruction was audio recorded from which a total of 558 questions were enumerated after transcription (308 questions asked by female teachers and 250 questions were asked by male teachers. Further results showed that three types of questions were asked by teachers. They were yes/no questions, closed and display questions, and open and referential questions. The results showed that closed and display questions were asked more frequently than other two types in both male and female teachers and female teachers asked meaningfully more closed and display questions than male teachers.