There is a great article that was published in the NCTM journal, Teaching Mathematics in the Middle School. It's called:
The article talks about two ways of asking questions. Funneling (not so great) and Focusing (better!). Here is my interpretation of the main theme of their article:
My Example of Funneling:
Teacher- What is 12 x 6
Student- I don’t know
Teacher- Well, what is 6 times 2?
Student- 12
Teacher- Put down the 2 and carry the one
Teacher- What is 6 times 1?
Student- 6
Teacher- Add 1
Student- 7
Teacher- So, what is 12 x 6?
My Example of Focusing:
Teacher- How can we multiply 12 x 6?
Student- I don’t know.
Teacher- Well, what do you know about multiplication?
Student- It’s repeated addition.
Teacher- Okay, so what could you do?
Student- Well, I know 5-twelves is 60.
Teacher- So, tell me more about that...
Student- So I guess I just need one more 12 added to 60, That would be 72.
Teacher- Great, are there any other methods we could use to get the answer?