An analysis of question asking on scientific texts explaining natural phenomena

This article relays results of a study focused on questions invoked to corr ect declarative knowledge deficits while readers process science texts expl aining natural phenomena. Firstly, the authors focused on finding out what: kind of questions are asked by students who read these texts and, secondly how task demand influences quantity and quality of formulated questions. T wo hundred and eighty nine Portuguese students from 8th, 10th, and 12th gra de participated in the study. The students were instructed to ask questions on two short science paragraphs that explained natural phenomena. Three ta sk conditions were chosen. Thus, in the "Class" condition, the task was int roduced as an activity aimed at developing the capacity to ask questions. I n the ''Examination" condition, the task was presented as a lest on questio n generation. Finally, in the "Extra-academic" condition the questioning ta sk was camouflaged as a participation in a research project sponsored by th e Ministry of Education and geared at the improvement of science textbooks. The results have shown that students are able to ask many questions when g iven an opportunity to do so. The study has also proven that students are c apable of generating a large volume of causal-antecedent questions relative to this kind of texts. Finally, no clear effects were found between grade level and/or task demand as defined in the conducted study. (C) 2000 John W iley Br Sons, Inc.