Next, we categorized each question

Next, we categorized each question by its orientation. The three question orientation attributes are phenomenon or problem description, hazards related to the problem, and treatment or solution. The researchers’views are that proposing solutions point to a higher level of understanding the problem than describing it, and that finding treatments or solutions is more positive and productive than just identifying hazards. Focus was placed not on recognizing the problem or on identifying the hazards, but on attempts to find solutions. The orientation of the first three questions (which student A posed in the aforementioned example) is “problem description,” whereas that of the fourth (last) question is “possible solutions.” The trends of change in the questions’ orientation are presented in Figure 1.