Preschool teachers’ questioning in sociodramatic play

• This descriptive study examined preschool teachers’ use of questions when they participate in children's sociodramatic play and children's responsiveness to teachers’ questions using sequential analysis.
• Most of participating teachers used more closed-ended questions than open-ended questions.
• Children were more verbally responding to open-ended questions than to closed-ended questions both in the pretend-play mode and not in the pretend-play mode.
• Both open-ended questions and closed-ended questions were more frequently responded by the children than non-question comments or prompts.
• The findings of the study suggest that the discouragement of teachers’ questions in sociodramatic play is unnecessary.

This descriptive study used sequential analysis to examine preschool teachers’ use of questions as they participated in their children's sociodramatic play and the children's responsiveness to their teachers’ questions. Eleven teachers in a Head Start program were videotaped while the teachers interacted with their children in the classrooms’ dramatic play center. The analyses indicated that the majority of the teachers used more closed-ended than open-ended questions and that the children were more verbally responsive to open-ended questions than to closed-ended questions in two play modes, pretend- and non-pretend-play modes. In addition, the children responded more frequently to both kinds of questions, open-ended and closed-ended, than to their teachers’ non-question comments or prompts. The findings suggest a need for a future study investigating teachers’ questions in children's sociodramatic play in various play contexts.