During the 2004 fall semester, students in S211 (Molecular Biology, Honors), were asked to write responses to a set of statements about questioning. Below are those statements, linked to students' responses.

1. As a student, I'm used to being more responsible for being prepared to answer lots of questions posed by the instructor than of being responsible for coming up with lots of questions myself.

2. When I ask questions, I risk revealing my ignorance and/or stupidity and/or poor attention span.

3. I feel as though there is little point in asking questions about things that I am probably going to eventually find answers to anyway. Time spent asking questions is time that would have been better spent actually learning something.

4. I can't ask useful questions about something until I know a fair amount about that something.

5. Once I know a lot about something, I shouldn't be expected to have many questions about it, because I should understand that something pretty well by then.

6. It's frustrating to have questions that I don't have answers to. It's frustrating to be carrying around unanswered questions in my head.

7. How well I can think about something, and how much I know about it, is better indicated by my ability to answer the instructor's questions about that something rather than by my ability to come up with my own questions about it.

8. I don't see much point in predicting possible answers to my questions when I could be spending that time just finding the answers instead. Speculating about possible answers is a poor use of time.

9. I am reluctant to predict possible answers to my questions, because when I do so I risk revealing my ignorance and/or stupidity.

10. I am reluctant to predict possible answers to my questions, because there's a good chance that I'll be wrong and end up leaving the wrong idea in my head.

11. If I have to make predictions, I shouldn't make ones that go beyond what I am pretty confident about.