194 

  

English Education Journal 
EEJ 7 (3) (2017) 

 

http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/eej 

 

 

Realization of Teachers’ Questions to Uncover Students’ Cognitive Domain of 

English Subject Matter in Classroom Interaction 

 

Anita  Rizky Kurniawati1,Sri Wuli Fitriati2 

 
1
STIKES HAKLI SEMARANG 

2 Universitas Negeri Semarang, Indonesia 

 

Article Info 

 
Article History: 

Recived  10 August 2017 

Accepted15 October 2017 

Published01 December 

2017 

 
Keywords: 

teacher questioning, 

cognitive level of 

questions, English subject 

matter, classroom 

interaction 

 

Abstract
 

 
When teachers conduct a lesson, the activity of posing questions always appears in it. The activity 

of posing questions includes the skills of asking cognitive level of questions in which a teacher must 

acquire. This study was undertaken in order to investigate the teachers' questioning skill in asking 

cognitive level of questions during the teaching learning activity. Questioning which can reveal 

students’ mastery in the English subject matter was analyzed. In conducting the questioning, the 

purposes of the questions when they posed the questions and the ways the teachers keep their 

students active in responding their questions are also discussed. This discourse study was based on 

the analysis of the teacher talk in class. The analysis was based on the recorded data of the four 

English teachers when they conducted lessons in class. To collect the data, I used video recording, 

field notes, and interview. The recorded data was transcribed. From the transcription, the way the 

teachers ask question in asking cognititve level were analyzed based on the revision of Blooms 

Taxonomy (2001) and the way the teachers keep their students active in responding their questions 

were analyzed according to the questioning techniques proposed by Jacobsen (1999). Then, the 

data from interview were transcribed and the data from field notes were analyzed qualitatively. 

The findings show that the teachers posed all of the types of cognitive level of questions for various 

ways. Remembering questions were done to asses the extent to which students’ background 

knowledge were. In the understanding level, the questions train the students’ understanding to 

convey the information by using their own words. In the analyzing level, the questions require the 

students to use their analysis to solve the problem and use their logical reasoning to the question 

given. In the evaluating questions require the students to state the reason and think critically. In the 

creating question level require the students to create an original product based on the information 

given where they are driven to think creatively and critically. Related to the teachers’ purposes in 

posing the question, there are seven major points of the teachers’ purposes in posing question. 

Finally, the result is related to the way the teachers keep the students active in responding the 

questions. The teachers used all of the questioning techniques. They are redirection, probing, 

prompting, wait-time and rephrasing. It can be concluded that the teachers use all types of 

cognitive level of questions both for low level and high level questions. Although almost all of the 

questions delivered by the teachers is low level questions but the teachers has tried to give more 

high level questions. 

 

© 2017 Universitas Negeri Semarang 

 
Correspondence Address:  

JalanPamularsih Raya Semarang 

E-mail: anitawati74@yahoo.com 

p-ISSN 2087-0108 

e-ISSN 2502-4566 

 

 



 

Anita RizkyKurniawati & Sri WuliFitriati/ EEJ 7 (3) (2017) 

 

195 

INTRODUCTION 

 

Fundamentally, one of  the purposes of  

language teaching is to make the students able to 

communicate in target language. Therefore, it is 

expected that teacher can give the students 

sufficient exposure to the target language during 

the lesson by encouraging the students to 

participate and to get involved  

more.Unfortunately, the expected active 

interaction desired rarely occurs during teaching 

and learning process due to the less motivation 

to participate possesed by the students, 

especially in Indonesia.Teacher’s domination in 

classroom interaction can discourage students to 

participate and speak more in the target 

language. Moreover, studies made by Daniel 

(2006) confirm that students have difficulties 

using the language and  in interacting in the 

classroom. 

One of the important roles to play by the 

teacher in the classroom is as the initiator and 

sustainer of interaction. According to Brown 

(2001), the most common way or strategy to 

initiate the classroom interaction is by asking 

questions to the students since questioning is one 

of the best ways to develop teachers role as an 

initiator and sustainer of interaction. By asking 

questions, the students are expected to actively 

give responses to the questions being asked to 

them since every question that the teacher gives 

to the learners needs an answer or responses 

from the learners. Then, there will be active 

interaction and communication established 

between teacher and students when the students 

give answer.  

Tollfeson (1989) postulates that asking 

questions in English classroom requires 

knowledge of the questioning skills. It means 

that teachers should have a good knowledge of 

questioning skill in their classroom.Thus, we 

cannot ignore that having questioning strategies 

are very important for teachers and students. It 

will help a teacher to plan questions and answers 

session effectively. Harvey (2000) states that 

questioning strategy is most effective when it 

allows pupils to become fully involved in the 

learning process. Therefore, it is absolutely vital 

for the teacher to direct their instruction at a 

clear and specific goal. They should understand 

how, why and when they pose questions to their 

students. So that it can enhance students 

participation in the learning process. There are 

many  types of question that can be applied by 

the teacher as a teaching strategy.  According to 

Grabowski (1996) different types of questions 

require different levels of cognitive processing 

and learning. 

In the past 15 years, it has been found 

through the research that questions may be 

classified into levels. These levels have been 

developed into hierarchy as stated in the revision 

of  Taxonomy of Bloom (2001). It concerns on 

the simpler cognitive abilities to more complex 

cognitively. Six types of question defined by 

Bloom is a way to increase student learning by 

using a starting question to gradually increase 

the cognitive learning of a student.Relating to 

those explanation, I am interested in applying 

Bloom taxonomy, especially for the cognitive 

domain, to analyze teachers’ questions in 

English classroom interaction. In teaching 

learning process, the teachers need to know the 

ability of the students and how far the students 

understand the material which has been taught. 

Thus, by applying cognitive level of questions, 

teacher can investigate the students mastery of 

the knowledge in comprehending the lesson. 

Moreover, by analyzing the teachers’ questions 

in the teaching learning procss, we can make 

better understanding to what extend that 

questions can give the opportunity of better 

understanding about the subject matter or the 

lesson 

Departing from the explanation above, 

the main concern of this study is the discussion 

about teachers’ questions in asking cognitive 

level of questions during the teaching learning 

activity. Questioning which can reveal students’ 

mastery in English subject matter will be 

discussed. The discussion of the teachers’ 

questions was based on a revision of Bloom’s 

taxonomy adopted from Anderson and 

Krathwohkl (2001). It is expected to be able to 

know the way the teachers ask questions in 

order to test students’ knowledge including six 



 

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196 

levels of cognitive domain of  Bloom’s 

taxonomy. The components are remembering, 

understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, 

and creating. In addition, I investigated not only 

the teacher questioning skill in asking cognitive 

level of questions but also the purposes of the 

questions when they posed the questions and the 

techniques that they used to keep their students 

active in responding their questions. 

 

Bloom’s Cognitive Taxonomy 

There are six levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy 

and questions at each level require the students 

respond to use a different kind of thought 

process. Below are the explanations of each type 

of question in the latest revision of the Bloom’s 

Taxonomy from the lowest to highest level. 

(1) Remembering 

This is the first and also the lowest level of 

taxonomy. In this level, the students are 

expected to answer kind of question by 

remembering the information, recalling or 

recognizing the idea, material or phenomena. 

During this time, students are not asked to 

manipulate information but merely to remember 

it just as it was learned.  

(2) Understanding 

In the understanding level, the students 

need to be able to grasp the essential information 

in the communication and also convey the 

information by using their own words. 

Commonly, the activities in understanding 

question are interpreting, summarizing, 

paraphrasing, classifying, and explaining.  

(3) Appying 

In this third question level, the students 

need to apply the information. It means that the 

students use the information that previously 

learned to solve the problem in the new case.  

(4) Analyzing 

Analysis means process of reducing a 

complex topic or substance into smaller parts to 

gain better understanding. To answer this type 

of question, the students need to be able to use 

their higher critical thinking. It requires students 

to think critically and comprehensively. They 

need to breakdown the information, identify the 

relation of parts of the information and also 

make a conclusion.  

(5) Evaluating 

Evaluation questions belong to a higher 

order type of question. Similar to analyzing 

questions, this kind of question does not have 

one correct answer. To answer this kind of 

question, students are provided with sets of 

ideas, problems or situations. Then, they are 

asked to state their opinion to make a judgment 

on the ideas, problems or situations.  

(6) Creating 

Creating is the highest level of  questions 

that ask students to perform original and creative 

thinking. These kinds of questions require 

students to produce original communications, to 

make predictions, and to solve problems. 

Although applying questions also require 

students to solve problems, creating questions 

differ because they do not require a single 

correct answer but, instead, allow a variety of 

creative answers. 

 

METHODS 

 

In this research, I used qualitative method 

to study the problem. In the discussion of 

qualitative research there are some types of 

study. One of them is the study on document 

analysis. The document analysis is a study 

which focuses on the analysis and interpretation 

of written, recording, and notes. Discourse 

analysis is one of the types of the study in the 

document analysis. In this study the discourse 

analysis focuses on the analysis and 

interpretation from recording data.In this study, 

I investigated the teacher questioning skill in the 

form of teachers talk and interpreted within the 

classroom discourse. 

In this study, there were four participants 

as the subjects of the study. They were four 

English teachers of SMPN 13 Semarang who 

were observed. The object of the study is the 

teachers questions skills in asking cognitive level 

of questions during the teaching learning 

activity. Questioning which can reveal students’ 

mastery in the English subject matter was 

discussed. The discussion of the teachers’ 



 

Anita RizkyKurniawati & Sri WuliFitriati/ EEJ 7 (3) (2017) 

 

197 

questions was based on a revision of Bloom's 

Taxonomy. It is expected to be able to know the 

way the teacher ask questions in order to test 

students’ knowledge including six levels of 

cognitive domain of  Bloom’s taxonomy. In 

conducting the questioning, the reason why the 

teacher posed the questions and how the 

teachers keep their students active in responding 

their questions are also important so they are 

also the object of the investigation too. 

The unit of analysis of the study is the 

teachers’ questions in asking cognitive level of 

questions which were conducted by four English 

teacher in SMPN 13 Semarang. Each cognitive 

level of question was analyzed based on the 

revivion of Bloom’s Taxonomy (2001). In 

addition, I investigated the purposes of the 

questions when they posed the questions which 

were analyzed based on the classification of 

Brown and Wragg (2003). Furthermore, to 

know how do the teachers keep their students 

active in responding their questions were 

analyzed according to the questioning 

techniques proposed by Jacobsen (1999). 

To collect the data from this study, I 

employed several instruments. They were 

classroom observation, interview and field notes. 

After the data are collected, they are analyzed. 

There are four steps used in methods of data 

analysis. First, it was the process of transforming 

spoken data into written form. The first and the 

second turns of the teachers’ performances were 

transcribed. Next, it was identifying the data. In 

the process of identification, teachers’ talk and 

the students’ talk were separated. All of the 

teachers’ talks from the transcription were 

identified, and then they were used for the next 

process of classifying. The next step is 

classifying. In this step, the teachers’ talk in 

asking questions were classified according to the 

six levels of cognitive domain. The classification 

of the cognitive level of questions based on a 

revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy (2001). Then, 

their talks were classified according to the 

questioning techniques proposed by Jacobsen 

(1999) to analyze how the teachers keep their 

students active in responding their questions. 

And the last one, to answer the purposes of the 

questions when they posed the questions was  

analyzed based on the classification of Brown 

and Wragg (2003). The last step is I drew an 

inference. 

The findings of the data analysis will be 

cross-checked by using triangulation. In this 

study, I used the triangulation of methods. In 

this type of triangulation, three instruments of 

collecting the data were employed, those were 

video recording, classroom observation, and 

interview. 

 

RESULT AND DISCUSSION 

 

I found that the teachers use all types of 

questions both for low level and high level 

questions. In all of the classes, the level of 

question dominating the teaching and learning 

process is the low level question which is the 

understanding level. Related to the teacher’s 

purposes in posing the question, there are seven 

major points of the teachers’ purposes in posing 

question. Finally, the result is related to the 

questioning techniques used by the teachers. The 

teachers used all of the questioning techniques. 

They are redirection, probing, prompting, wait-

time and rephrasing.  

 

Types of Question Level in the Teachers’ 

Teaching 

The findings shows that the teachers 

posed questions at remembering level were for 

various ways. It served as lead in parts to the 

lesson, to review the previous meeting’s topic, to 

recall students’ knowledge on a certain topic 

being discussed, and to direct students’ attention 

to classroom activities. All of the remembering 

questions asked here were done to asses the 

extent to which students’ background knowledge 

were, before the teacher posed the subsequent 

higher level questions. 

In the understanding question level, the 

teachers posed questions at this level were for 

various ways. It served to check the students 

understanding of the material being discussed, to 

elicit the students’ answer in their own word in 

explaining the material being discussed, to check 

the students’ understanding  in constructing 



 

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198 

meaning of the learned lesson, and to check the 

students understanding in translating the 

meaning from English into Indonesian on the 

material which is being discussed. All of the 

understanding questions asked here were trains 

the students’ understanding to convey the 

information by using their own words which has 

been discussed before. 

Next, in the level of applying, it is inferred 

from the obtained data that the teachers posed 

questions at this level were for various ways. It 

served to attract students’ attention and get them 

interested in applying a procedure in a given 

situasion, to encourage the students to be able to 

think creatively and critically, and to encourage 

discussion among the students in finding some 

issues related to the material given. In asking the 

applying questions level here, the students 

should use the information that previously 

learned to solve the problem in the new case. 

In the analyzing question level, the 

teachers posed questions at this level were for 

various ways. It served to stimulate the students 

to think critically by analyzing an information 

given, to engage in discussions to analyze the 

text given by the teacher, to determine a point of 

view of presented information, and to determine 

how the information given relate to one another. 

All of the analyzing questions asked here require 

the students to use their analysis in finding out 

the information that is asked by the teacher, 

solve a problem through the information given, 

and use their logical reasoning to the question 

given. 

 Meanwhile, in the level of evaluating, it 

is inferred from the obtained data that the 

teachers posed questions at this level were for 

various ways. It asked the students to think 

critically in order to elaborate their opinion 

about the topic which is being discussed and to 

make a judgement about an argument based on 

the students criteria and standard. All of the 

evaluating questions asked here require the 

students to state the reason and think critically in 

order to consider whether the argument which is 

being discussed is appropriate based on their 

criteria. 

 Finally, in the creating question level, it 

is inferred from the obtained data that the 

teachers posed questions at this level were for 

various ways. It served to produce a creative 

thinking in making a sentences by using the 

student own words, to develop the answer from 

the previous information, and for devising a 

procedure in accomplishing a task given by the 

teacher. All of the creating questions asked here 

require the students to create an original product 

based on the information given. By using this 

kind of question, the students are driven to think 

creatively and critically. 

 

Purposes in Posing the Questions 

Related to the teacher’s purposes in 

posing the question, it can be concluded that 

there are seven major points of the teachers’ 

purposes in posing question. Those are (1) to 

asses the extent to which students’ background 

knowledge were and recall lessons taught earlier, 

(2) to attract students’ interest immediately and 

bring about the feeling of curiosity among 

students, (3) to assess students’ understanding of 

what the teacher has taught, (4) to stimulate 

students’ thinking skills, (5) to encourage 

students to think creatively and critically, (6) to 

engage in discussions to solve a problem and 

investigate it further, and (7) to promote 

discussion among members in a group while 

they were engaging in the same activity. 

The results show that seven purposes 

found in this study, consistent with the literature 

reviewed by the researcher. These seven 

purposes which emerged from the data in this 

study were mostly in line with the teacher’s 

purposes categories presented by Brown and 

Wragg (2003) 

According to Richard and Lockhart 

(1994), questions may encourage students to 

think and focus on the content of the lesson. 

Questions can enable teachers to check students’ 

understanding and mastery of grammar and the 

content of texts. In a word, enhancing students’ 

language learning is one of the important 

purpose of teacher questioning. This study also 

concludes that the main purpose of teachers’ 



 

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199 

questioning is to improve students’ language 

learning. 

 

Questioning Techniques 

Finally, the result is related to the 

questioning techniques used by the teachers. I 

concluded that the teachers used all of the 

questioning techniques. They are redirection, 

probing, prompting, wait-time and rephrasing. 

The teachers applied redirection strategies 

several times since it can makes the students 

keep pay attention of the teacher’s lesson 

explanation. The use of wait time by the 

teachers makes the students able to think more, 

for they have sufficient time to think. It is 

important because the ability of each student to 

catch the ideas or questions is different. In wait-

time students also can emerge their memories 

and find the appropriate answers. From the data 

showed that the observed teacher used wait-time 

a lot. Then, the use of probing technique as a 

way of supporting and developing students’ 

thinking skill. Furthermore, the use of 

rephrasing by the teacher to make the students 

understood of their questions. They used them 

when the students did not catch their questions 

because of the long questions, so they used short 

questions with clear words. The technique of 

phrasing was mostly applied in the examples 

above is by constructing the simple and clear 

questions orally. The use of prompting by the 

teachers help the students to get the right answer 

by helping him/her through a series of questions 

or by giving a clue. According to the result of the 

data, the teacher apply all techniques of 

questioning during the classroom activities. 

 
CONCLUSION 

 
The result of the study shows that the 

teachers posed all of the types of cognitive level 

of questions for various ways. Remembering 

questions were done to asses the extent to which 

students’ background knowledge were. In the 

understanding level, the questions trains the 

students’ understanding to convey the 

information by using their own words. In the 

analyzing level, the questions require the 

students to use their analysis to solve the 

problem and use their logical reasoning to the 

question given. In the evaluating questions 

require the students to state the reason and think 

critically. In the creating question level require 

the students to create an original product based 

on the information given where they are driven 

to think creatively and critically. Related to the 

teacher’s purposes in posing the question, there 

are seven major points of the teachers’ purposes 

in posing question. Finally, the result is related 

to the questioning techniques used by the 

teachers. The teachers used all of the questioning 

techniques. They are redirection, probing, 

prompting, wait-time and rephrasing.  

From this study, it can be concluded that 

the teachers use all types of questions both for 

low level and high level questions. In all of the 

classes, the level of question dominating the 

teaching and learning process is the low level 

question which is the understanding level. 

Although the result of the data shows that 

almost all of the questions delivered by the 

teachers is low level questions, actually the 

teachers has tried to give more high level 

questions but the students still have difficulties to 

answer. The future study is expected to conduct 

further studies on classroom questioning to 

investigate the problems in detail and their 

solutions in relation to the language classrooms. 

Thus, looking  into classroom questioning in 

particular can provide useful information 

concerning the problems related to classroom 

questions and the effectiveness of teachers’ 

questions that are planned for a lesson. 

 

REFERENCES 

 

Anderson, L, & Krathwohkl, D.R. (2001). A 

Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching and Assessing: A 

revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational 

objectives. New York:  Addison Wesley 

Longman. 

Bloom, B. (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: 

The Classification of Educational Goals: Cognitive 

Domain. New York: Longman Green. 

Brown, G., & Wragg, E.C. (2003). Questioning. 

London: Routledge. 



 

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200 

Daniel, E. (2006).  Classroom Interaction and Its 

Influence on the Development of Trainees’ speaking 

skills in English at 10 + 1 Level in Technical and 

Vocational Training Institute. 

Grabowski, B. L. (1996). Generative Learning: Past, 

Present, and Future. In D. H. Jonassen (ed.). 

Handbook of Research for Educational 

Communications and Technology. New York: 

Simon and Schuster Macmillan. 

Harvey, S. (2000). Strategies That Work: Teaching 

Comprehension to Enhance Understanding. 

Ontario: Stenhouse Publishers. 

Jacobsen, D.A. et al. (1999). Methods for teaching (5th 

ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall. 

Richards, J.C., & Lockhart, C. (1994). Reflective 

Teaching in Second Language Classrooms. 

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Tollfeson, J.W. (1989). A System of Improving 

Questions. Forum, 27, 45-70.