The Art of Questioning: Stimulating Critical Thinking in Students 

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“How to apply Pythagorean theorem in your life?”

If your teacher had asked you this question in middle grade, what would be your response? We are pretty sure that all of you would have given unique answers to this question. Why?

Well, because this open-ended question would have let you use your cognitive skills and critically analyze different situations where you can use the Pythagorean theorem. Your answer would definitely be different from other students because they all analyzed this question through different lenses.

This scenario must have told you the importance of questioning in stimulating critical thinking and creativity. But how can teachers implement it in their classrooms? We are going to discuss it in detail in this blog.

Understanding Critical Thinking

The renowned psychologist Jordan Peterson once said, “Thinking critically means questioning everything and assuming nothing.”

Critical thinking is defined as a life skill or ability to analyze information, evaluate evidence or arguments, identify biases and form a rational conclusion. In this digital world, where excessive information and misleading content are present, developing critical thinking skills in kids is the most crucial thing. This life skill will help them to navigate the complexities of life as they can identify the misleading information or authenticity of any stat. It is the bedrock on which tutors, students, parents and Institutes can build life and academic skills.

But, unfortunately, critical thinking is fading and surface-level judgment is dominating in the kids. Stanford research shows that 82 percent of 11 to 14-year-old kids lack critical thinking abilities.

So, teachers should work on it. The best strategy for stimulating critical thinking in the classroom is to utilize the power of questioning.

The Power of Questions

Professor Linda Elder from the Foundation of Critical Thinking states: “To develop as thinkers, students must be able to ask good questions and recognize problems and issues when they arise”.

Newton was able to recognize gravity because he asked the question of why apples come down from the tree. So, critical questions can foster critical thinking in you.

Asking critical questions is an art that educators should teach students from the elementary school level. To teach it, they should ask critical questions in the classroom. It allows teachers to gauge existing knowledge of the kid and then scaffold new concepts. The inquiry-based learning encourages participation, problem-solving and creativity in the students.

But, how can educators formulate critical questions and foster critical thinking in the kids? Well, Bloom’s Taxonomy and Socratic Method is your answer.

Socratic Method

ASocratic method is a form of cooperative argumentative dialogues that dig into ideas and come to a deeper understanding of an individual’s thoughts. It is named after the Greek philosopher Socrates who is a famous critical thinker.

It promotes certain types of questioning techniques to foster critical thinking in students. These are open-ended questions that have “Why?” or “How?”. With it, this method promotes structured inquiries or conversations, questions challenging or evaluating evidence, clarification of stats and probing assumptions.

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Bloom’s Taxonomy provides a framework for teachers to craft an inquiry-based conversation with students. It provides six levels of learning objectives, allowing tutors to move from low-end questions to high-end questions that promote critical thinking. These six levels are:

Remembering: It involves asking questions that are related to previous knowledge. For example, “What is the third law of Newton?”

Understanding: At this level, learners are asked to put information into another form. They need to summarize, paraphrase and explain the information. For example, “How could you explain the impact of deforestation on climate?”

Applying: It is to encourage students to apply their existing knowledge to a new situation. For example, “How can we apply the Socratic method in the classroom?”

Analysis: In it, students are required to break down complex thoughts into certain parts to find the relationship between them. For example, “Explain different factors contributing to climate changes.”

Evaluation: At this level, students will evaluate the pieces of evidence and give their opinions and judgements. For example, “Do you agree on the partition of Pakistan and India? Give your opinion.”

Creating: At last, you can give any project to students to let them create anything unique. You can ask them to formulate unique ideas, products or solutions. For example, “Design an innovative solution to reduce deforestation in the country.

Techniques for Teachers to Successfully Implement the Art of Questioning in the Classroom

Designing Effective Questions

There are different types of questions and techniques you can use in your classroom.

The one in them is open-ended questions. These questions can foster curiosity in students, enabling them to take part in classroom discussions.

Another one is funnel questions which allows teachers to break down complex topics and thoughts into simple questions.

Probing questions are prompts that allow students to add more information or clarification to their previous questions.

You can add these techniques in different lessons. You should think of one or two critical questions for each lesson.

Pausing while Questioning

You should pause 3-5 seconds after asking a question. This gives students time to reflect and think about any particular answer. If the question is of high level, you should pause for at least 10 seconds.

Initially, ask the question from the whole class so that all can formulate an answer. After that, direct it to any specific student. When the student answers, pause so that everyone considers the answer.

Rephrase Questions

If a student is not responding, you can rephrase your question. If the question is complex, you can scaffold the answer by providing any framework for the answer. For this, you can follow Bloom’s taxonomy six levels framework.

Deal with Wrong Answers

If a student has given a wrong answer to your question, you should dignify it by providing the right question to their answer. Or, you can help redirect the student’s thinking toward the right answer. If a student is silent, you should direct the question toward the other student.

Take Help from Parents

Instructors and parents can team up to promote critical thinking in a kid. For this, parents can make a norm in the home to ask and encourage critical questions. They can ask questions from their kids while they are doing a study or any activity.

Technological Tools for Critical Thinking

Creating questions for each lesson is quite a hefty task for tutors. So, you can get help from AI tools to generate quizzes for you. For example, QuizGecko requires PDF documents to generate quizzes and questions for you. Moreover, different AI platforms provide productive questions to students related to their subject. Some examples are QuizPlus, Kahoot and Quizizz. Teachers can have critical question sessions outside of the classroom with the help of Padlet. They can add any critical question on the virtual wall and all students can respond to it. Another AI tool Socrates enables students to create critical questions.

Case Studies and Success Stories

The co-founder of Tapas School has shared an instance of critical thinking and questioning of their teacher on LinkedIn. The teacher asked the young students to make a circle around her for a questioning session. She asked one simple question: “Why do you think some students come late to school?” In response, she got diverse answers. From there, she steered the conversation toward traffic and asked what other issues traffic can cause. From those answers, she steered the conversation toward cars. In the end, she asked the high-level question: “How can we build a more efficient car?” From this question, she formulated a project for students that cultivated their critical thinking and enabled them to create new solutions.

Conclusion

In short, critical thinking and questioning have a strong relationship. From critical questioning, teachers can take students toward critical answers, projects and assignments. So, they should learn how to apply critical questioning in the classroom. In this regard, tutors, parents and school administration should also help them.