ABSTRACT
Problem-posing has roots in the work of Dewey and Piaget, who urged active, inquiring education, through which students constructed meaning in successive phases and developed scientific habits of mind. Many educators have agreed with this dynamic approach, including Freire, who evolved from it his method of "problem-posing dialogue". In a Freirean model for critical learning, the teacher is often defined as a problem-poser who leads a critical dialogue in class, and problem-posing is a synonym for the pedagogy itself. As a pedagogy and social philosophy, problem-posing focuses on power relations in the classroom, in the institution, in the formation of standard canons of knowledge, and in society at large. Student culture as well as inequality and democracy are central issues to problem-posing educators when they make syllabi and examine the climate of learning. Freire emphasized problem-posing as a democratic way for students to take part in the contention over knowledge and the shape of society.
