Last decades science education has been a centre of several reforms in national and international contexts, which ask science teachers to promote learning environments, where pupils have the opportunity to learn science as inquiry, combining the characteristics of the disciplines, with the characteristics common to scientific endeavours (Galvão et al., 2002; NRC, 1996).

However, research shows that still exist much disconnection between what is recommended and what is put in action during science classes (Cachapuz, Praia & Jorge, 2002). Teacher thinking and classroom behaviour are related to each other in a reciprocal way. Teachers’ conceptions influences teaching practices, while in a reverse way, teaching activities influence teachers conceptions. This reciprocal relationship is complex and up till now, not understood very well. (De Jong & Van Der Valk, 2007; Roehrig & Kruse, 2005).

As teachers are central elements in the implementation of curricular recommendations, they have to think and act according the curricular guidelines. According to this, to learn science as inquiry includes the art of asking questions, as one of the first skills teachers need to master on their teaching (Llewellyn, 2005).  This author states that posing good questions is central to a teacher’s instructional repertoire, especially in an inquiry-based classroom. Planning questions in advance to teach is essential to promote pupils thinking in classroom.  By choosing levels of questions that require higher level of thinking skills the teacher prompts the classroom discussion to challenge students’ thinking.

The teacher must decide prior to instruction, as well as during instruction, the type of processing questions that can be asked to assist pupils in understanding, more completely, the study of science. Therefore, in planning lessons teacher should think through the kind of pupil responses she or he could get to any core question posed, and determine the kind of processing needed to assist students in forming more quality responses (Dantonio and Beisenherz, 2001; Llewellyn, 2005).

Erdogan and Campbell (2008) refer some results of their research that highlight the relationship between teacher questions and low or high levels of constructivist teaching practices. According these authors teachers facilitating classrooms with high levels of constructivist teaching practices were very active as they asked a greater number of questions compared to teachers facilitating classrooms with low levels of constructivists teaching practices.

This study is part of a larger research that previously revealed that questioning is one of the main strategies suggested by Portuguese National Curriculum and one of the most frequently used by beginning teachers in their planning and science classes. Furthermore, both, teachers that use teacher-centred and pupils-centred approaches in science lessons, privileged the use of questioning in their planning and in their classes. The following aims guided this study:

• To describe and to classify the nature of questions asked by beginning teachers in their planning and during science lessons.
• To identify the similarities and differences between:
  •  the questions formulated by teachers with different conceptions of teaching science.
  • the questions formulated by teachers with different approaches in teaching practices.

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