AUTONOMY AND QUESTION ASKING - THE ROLE OF PERSONAL CONTROL IN GUIDED STUDENT-GENERATED QUESTIONING

University students in small groups used a question-asking strategy to guide their discussion of material presented in class lectures. Students in a learner-controlled condition used thought-provoking generic question stems to guide them in generating their own discussion questions specific to the lecture, whereas those in an experimenter-controlled condition were provided with similar lecture-specific questions generated by students in the same course during the previous semester using identical question stems. Students in both conditions posed their questions to their small-group peers and answered each other's questions. On tests of lecture comprehension students who generated their own questions outperformed students provided with others' questions. Locus of control was also a predictor of performance. Internals allowed to generate their own questions performed better on comprehension tests than internals provided with others' questions. Because of its small n, this study must be considered a pilot; however, results of this study do suggest that learner control in guided questioning may be a beneficial feature of that strategy, at least for individuals with internal locus of control.