ABSTRACT
Wonder-full education begins from “unknown questions.” Unknown questions are those whose answers are not known by the teacher, even though the teacher may have posed the questions. They may also be questions raised by others, whose significance the teacher does not understand. Since the teacher doesn’t know the answer, she/he cannot provide the “correct answer” to the children; the answers need to be explored. When the teacher commits to a collaborative exploration of the answer with the children, the explorative activities involve the children in tackling the question. In this sense, the unknown question stimulates children to think deeply about the teaching material. That is the main tenet of a Japanese dialogical pedagogy called Saitou pedagogy after its founder Kihaku Saitou. This chapter introduces the pedagogy.
