We have found that although both teachers are considered good teachers and the structure of the lesson was the same in both classes, the practice and “culture of question asking” of the two teachers are different and are shaped and applied differently. This has to do with the differences in the patterns of the teachers’ discourse. For instance, the pattern of Naomi’s discourse is described in literature as the “funnel” pattern (where the teacher directs the students by means of questions toward the expected answer), while the pattern of Robert’s discourse is similar to the “focused” pattern (the teachers leaves the responsibility for arriving at the solution to the students, while helping them to focus on the important aspects of the problem), as described by Wood (1998). Also the ways of listening of the two teachers are different, where Naomi predominantly exercises evaluative listening, while Robert was applied both evaluative and "interpretive" listening (Davis, 1997). While most questions by both teachers were concerned with mathematical content, Naomi's questions were not directed personally at the students, that is, the purpose of the question was to receive a mathematical answer and not emphasize the individual student (we will term this type of question "technical"). By contrast, most of the questions in Robert’s classes required more explanation and argumentation than those in Naomi’s classes (we will term this type of question "investigative").We have observed that both Naomi and Robert essentially preserved their teaching styles both in the supplemental question-asking portions of their classes and in the regular classes that adhered to their regular curriculum. Thus, in order to foster and encourage question-asking in class, it is not enough to provide the questions to the teachers. The way in which the questions are asked, the timing and the number of times each question is asked have a central role in the culture of question-asking. In other words, even investigative questions can be asked in a technical way and not to give rise to any significant process of investigation. The results show that in order to change traditional teaching styles, it is not enough to give the teacher a small, narrowly focused exemplary learning unit, even if the teacher has previously taken a course in implementing new teaching methods, as Robert and Naomi did. The initial evidence shows that leveraging teachers are more likely to incorporate
advanced instructional strategies than conserving teachers. However, the exposure of both teachers to the question-asking teaching methodology was very brief, and it remains to be seen whether a more extensive exposure might or might not change a conserving teacher's questioning strategies.