ABSTRACT
To improve what was happening in classrooms, Seymour Sarason (2002) suggested we make students’ questions central. But don't teacher questions promote student thought and questions? The answer is no, if questions are being used as disciplinary devices, to find out who's done the reading. The answer is no, if the person asking the questions is the brightest and most active person in the room and the one who's using questions as a way to perform. It's long been assumed that the teacher's prodding encourages students to ask their own questions. The problem is that it doesn't work. Teacher questions dominate. Student questions languish. What happens in most classrooms trains students not to ask questions. My goal in this chapter is to elaborate on these points.
