This paper presents an ethnographic study conducted in five Moroccan primary schools in Marrakesh and region. This study utilizes cultural models theory as an instrument of inquiry to probe primary school teachers’ beliefs and assumptions about pedagogical reform initiatives. The intent is to develop awareness of the sociocultural embeddedness of teachers’ thinking with regard to pedagogical renewal. In the course of interviews, the overwhelming majority of teachers harbor lingering doubts about the possibility of institutionalizing pedagogical reform. Imported pedagogies are informed by knowledge, values, and justifications generated in their own contexts. Henceforth, there is a need for a thoughtful consideration of the local context if imported pedagogies are to yield some of their anticipated results. The teachers believe that reform in primary school, in the face of daunting challenges, is doomed to failure. This might explain the fact that after years of ‘implementation’, pedagogical innovation in primary school has done poorly in terms of being institutionalized and does not appear to have achieved its desideratum. In the absence of optimal conditions that facilitate implementation, reform effort is a waste of time, money and energy. The teachers call for a bottom-up model for policy development which takes into account the central role of teachers’ beliefs and actual practices in the policy design and enactment processes.

This study investigates to what extent Moroccan primary school teachers utilize questions as a powerful pedagogical implement to stimulate thinking and construct knowledge. The intent is to highlight the forms and functions of questions posed and how effective they are in consolidating understanding and scaffolding thinking. The theoretical framework underpinning this study is embedded within the sociocultural perspective that conceptualizes the classroom as a cultural location of meaning in which relationships, functions, regulations, values, and norms are socially constructed. The study draws on observation data in large-class settings. Twenty teachers from five different schools took part in the study. Fifty lessons covering a range of subjects and topics were observed. Some of the lessons were audiotaped following teachers' consent. Verbal manuscripts of classroom questions were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The focus was on questioning exchanges and how they aided or obstructed knowledge construction and cognitive engagement of learners. The findings of this study illustrate how whole-class questioning is dominated by factual questions requiring prescripted responses. Few questions were of speculative nature, which invites opinions, hypotheses and imaginings. Teachers employ questioning to retain control and to support their teaching, rather than pupil learning. . From the results it can then be recommended that in-service workshops should be supplied for teachers, and courses on how to use effective classroom questions to advance attainment/ learning outcomes of students. The concern for good use of teachers' classroom questions for effectual learning outcomes should also be integrated in the training programs at different teacher training centers in Morocco.