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Using questioning and discussion techniques to drive instruction and meet the needs of diverse learners has been at the forefront of the current standards-based reform in the United States, where learning standards are used to determine academic expectations. The general goal of standards-based education is to ensure that students are acquiring the knowledge and skills that are deemed to be essential for their success in higher education and careers (Great Schools Partnership, 2017). From kindergarten to higher education, questioning has been viewed as a multifaceted strategy that animates learning, improves the quality of classroom instruction, and cultivates students’ higher order thinking (Conley, 2011; Danielson, 2011; McLaughlin & Overturf, 2012; Porter, McMaken, Hwang, & Yang, 2011). Given the importance attributed to the role of questioning in students’ academic and career success, how questions are incorporated into classroom teaching/learning practices to provide a well-structured, effective instruction for all learners, including English language learners (ELLs), deserves to be extensively studied. As a preliminary comparative study, this paper compares and contrasts Common Core Standards (CCSS) (CCSS, 2011) and Philosophy for Children (P4C) (Lipman, 1991) classroom practices as two approaches to questioning, with a special focus on classroom roles created for students in each approach. The goal is to demonstrate that opportunities afforded by different classroom roles have profound implications of equity and inclusion for ELLs in classroom inquiry communities.

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Originally published in NYS TESOL Journal, 4(2), 66-77. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA. The original material can be found here.