Student-Generated Questions in Literacy Education and Assessment

This study investigated the extent to which students’ questioning ability is associated with their literacy abilities, attitudes, perceived text understanding, and interest in the text they read. We further examined these relationships by the type of text they read to generate questions. Fifth- and sixth-grade students (N = 89) were asked to generate three questions after reading two different types of text. The students also completed reading comprehension and writing tests, as well as a questionnaire about their attitude toward literacy, perceived text understanding, and interest in the text. A hierarchical regression analysis showed that the quality of student-generated questions was predicted by reading comprehension ability, a positive attitude toward writing, and perceived level of understanding of the text, with strong effects related to text genre. We explore the implications of these findings on current pedagogy and assessment practices in literacy education and suggest areas for further research.