In part one last week, I said that open questions can be used to promote critical thinking. Using questions to foster critical thinking in the classroom is a powerful strategy that encourages students to analyse, evaluate, and synthesise information.
Here are 10 ideas for using questions to promote critical thinking:
- Ask big philosophical questions: Pose questions that don't have a single correct answer and require students to think deeply and explore different perspectives. These often start with words like "why", "how”, and "what if"?
- Challenge students’ assumptions: Encourage students to question their own assumptions and preconceived notions. Ask questions that prompt them to consider alternative viewpoints/solutions.
- Probe for evidence: When students present an argument or answer, ask follow-up questions that require them to provide evidence or examples to support their claims. This develops their analytical skills.
- Encourage analysis: Ask questions that require students to break-down complex ideas into their constituent parts. For example: "What are the key components of this theory? How do they interact?"
- Promote comparison and contrast: Encourage students to compare and contrast different concepts, theories, or approaches. This helps them to identify similarities, differences, and underlying patterns and trends.
- Explore consequences: Pose questions about the potential consequences of different decisions or actions. Encourage students to think about the short-term and long-term effects.
- Apply concepts to real-world situations: Present students with real-world scenarios and ask them how they would apply their knowledge and critical thinking skills to solve problems.
- Encourage reflection: After a discussion or activity, ask students to reflect on what they have learned, how their thinking has evolved, and what questions they still have.
- Incorporate diverse perspectives: Ask questions that encourage students to consider perspectives from different cultural, historical, or social contexts. This broadens their understanding and critical thinking skills.
- Support collaborative problem-solving: Pose questions that require students to work together in groups to analyse a problem, discuss potential solutions, and justify their choices.
Another way to promote critical thinking is to foster a classroom culture where students feel comfortable asking – and not just answering – questions. This promotes curiosity and helps them further develop their critical thinking skills.
Dialogic teaching
Another way to deepen students’ understanding, develop their critical thinking skills, and ensure active participation is to follow the Socratic method.
Socratic questioning is a form of dialogic teaching which is an approach to education that places a strong emphasis on interactive and collaborative dialogue between teachers and students. Dialogic teaching focuses on creating a learning environment whereby students actively engage in discussions, express their thoughts, ask questions, and work together to construct knowledge.
Before we focus on the Socratic method, let’s examine some key principles of dialogic teaching:
First, in a dialogic teaching setting, classroom discussions are interactive and dynamic. Both teachers and students contribute to conversations, sharing their ideas, perspectives, and experiences.
Second, dialogic teaching shifts the focus from a teacher-centred approach to a student-centred one. Students are encouraged to take ownership of their learning by participating actively in discussions and contributing their insights.
Third, open-ended questions that stimulate critical thinking are a central component of dialogic teaching. These questions prompt students to analyse, evaluate, and synthesise information, fostering deeper understanding.
Fourth, dialogic teaching requires collaborative learning whereby students work together in small groups or as a class to explore topics, share their thoughts, and engage in problem-solving activities.
Fifth, all students are encouraged to actively participate in discussions. This includes quieter students who might be less inclined to speak up in traditional teaching environments. But teachers also play a crucial role in guiding and facilitating discussions. Teachers need to use techniques like Socratic questioning to help students clarify their thoughts, consider alternative viewpoints, and delve deeper into the subject matter.
Finally, dialogic teaching often incorporates opportunities for students to reflect on their own learning, the learning process, and how their perspectives have evolved. In practice, this means encouraging a wide range of perspectives and experiences to enrich classroom discussions. Indeed, dialogic teaching values diverse viewpoints and encourages students to consider different angles.
Dialogic teaching also encourages students to think about their thinking and thus helps them to become increasingly metacognitive and self-regulated. This, in turn, helps them become more aware of their strengths and areas for improvement.
In dialogic teaching, knowledge is seen as something that is co-constructed through interactions between teachers and students. Everyone contributes to building a collective understanding. Dialogic teaching aligns well with constructivist educational theories, which emphasise the active role of learners in constructing their own knowledge. It also promotes a positive and inclusive classroom environment, where students feel valued, respected, and confident in expressing their ideas.
Creating a questioning classroom: A five-part SecEd series
- Part 1: 13 techniques for teachers: Published November 1
- Part 2: 38 Socratic questions for your teaching: This article.
- Part 3: Encouraging debate and discussion: Published November 15.
- Part 4: The purpose and timing of questions: Published November 21.
- Part 5: Practical questioning techniques: Published November 28.
Matt Bromley has also appeared on an episode of the SecEd Podcast focused on great teacher questioning in the secondary school classroom. Find this episode here.
Socratic questioning
Socratic questioning is a teaching technique inspired by the Socratic method of inquiry, which involves a series of open-ended questions designed to promote critical thinking, deep understanding, and active engagement in discussions.
Socratic questioning encourages students to explore complex ideas, analyse assumptions, and arrive at conclusions through thoughtful dialogue. Socratic questioning can be used to:
- Control a discussion.
- Explore more complex ideas.
- Uncover assumptions.
- Analyse concepts and ideas.
- Distinguish between what students know and do not know.
Broadly speaking, Socratic questioning performs two functions in the classroom:
- To deeply probe student thinking to help them begin to distinguish what they know or understand from what they do not know or understand.
- To foster students’ abilities to ask Socratic questions and to help them acquire the powerful tools of Socratic dialogue so that they can use these tools in everyday life (in questioning themselves and others).
How does Socratic questioning work in the classroom?
- The teacher poses thought-provoking questions. They typically start with an open-ended, thought-provoking question related to the topic of discussion. The question should stimulate curiosity and encourage students to think critically.
- The teacher facilitates discussions rather than gives a lecture. They avoid providing direct answers or explanations as the teacher. Instead, they guide the discussion by asking follow-up questions that encourage students to think deeply and articulate their thoughts.
- The teacher engages with student responses. When students respond to a question, the teacher acknowledges their answers but, rather than commenting on those answers or providing a “correct” answer, they ask further probing questions to deepen students’ thinking. Here, the teacher’s task is to encourage students to elaborate, provide evidence, or consider alternative viewpoints.
- The teacher seeks clarification by asking students to refine their ideas, definitions, or assumptions. This helps students to develop a clearer understanding of the concepts being discussed.
- The teacher challenges students’ assumptions. They pose questions that challenge students' biases and preconceived notions and encourage students to examine the underlying beliefs that influence their thinking.
- Explore contradictions and inconsistencies. Here, the teacher encourages students to identify contradictions or inconsistencies in their own or other people’s arguments, prompting deeper analysis and encouraging critical thinking.
- Ask for evidence and examples. The teacher prompts students to provide evidence, examples, or real-world applications to support their ideas, helping students to connect theory to practice and develop a more robust understanding of the subject being debated. A part of this stage of the process is to encourage students to respond to each other's ideas and build upon the discussion, thus fostering collaborative learning and the exploration of diverse perspectives.
Throughout, the teacher should use a variety of question types. They should incorporate different types of Socratic questions including clarifying questions, probing questions, hypothetical questions, and reflective questions – on which, more shortly. This creates a well-rounded dialogue that promotes comprehensive exploration.
They should also prompt students to reflect on their own thinking processes and the reasoning behind their answers. This cultivates metacognitive awareness and enhances their ability to think critically in the future.
Crucially and perhaps most difficult to master, teachers need to facilitate rather than dictate. Teachers should guide the discussion and prompt deeper explorations. They should avoid dominating the conversation or steering it towards a predetermined answer.
What’s more, as the discussion progresses, the teacher should help students to synthesise their ideas and arrive at conclusions. One way to do this is to summarise key points and encourage students to reflect on what they have learned.
Socratic questioning is, by design, a formulaic approach and thus it is best to stick rigidly to the process – at least to begin with. To do this, it helps to follow a six-part structure. Below I offer 38 questions across these six categories for you to consider:
1, Conceptual clarification
To get students to clarify their thinking:
- “Why do you say that?”
- “What exactly does this mean?”
- “Could you explain that further?”
- “What do we already know about that?”
- “Can you give me an example?”
- “Are you saying ... or ...?”
- “Can you rephrase that, please?”
2, Probing assumptions
To challenge students about their pre-existing assumptions and to make them think about their hitherto unquestioned beliefs:
- “Is that always the case?”
- “Why do you think that assumption holds here?”
- “Please explain why/how ...?”
- “How can you verify/disprove that assumption?”
- “What would happen if ...?”
- “Do you agree or disagree with ...?”
3, Probing rationale, reasons, and evidence
To uncover – and interrogate – the evidence or reasoning upon which students base their argument:
- “Why do you say that?”
- “Is there reason to doubt the evidence?”
- “How do you know this?”
- “Show me…”
- “Can you give me an example of that?”
- “Are those reasons good enough?”
- “How might it be refuted?”
4, Questioning viewpoints/perspectives
To explore alternative points of view and, importantly, to show students that there are other, equally valid viewpoints:
- “What is the counter-argument?”
- “Can anyone see this another way?”
- “What is the difference between ... and ...?”
- “Why is it better than ...?”
- “What are the strengths and weaknesses of ...?”
- “How are ... and ... similar?”
- “How could you look another way at this?”
5, Probing implications and consequences
To explore the implications and consequences of an argument and to consider whether the argument makes sense and if its consequences are desirable:
- “But if ... happened, what else would then result?”
- “How does ... affect ...?”
- “What are the implications of ...?”
- “How does ... fit with what we learned before?”
- “Why is ... important?”
- “What is the best ...? Why?”
6, Questioning the question
Question the initial question. This involves students in understanding why the teacher asked the question they did and perhaps proposing alternative questions:
- “Why do you think I asked that question?”
- “Why was that question important?”
- “Am I making sense? Why not?”
- “What else might I ask?”
- “What does that mean?”
Ideally, all six categories of questions should be used with the same student as a follow-up to the initial “big question”. In other words, the teacher asks a question to which the student offers their initial response. Then the teacher drills down and interrogates the student’s response by asking the six Socratic questions in order.
While one student is being “interrogated” the rest of the class should observe and, at the end, offer comments or be questioned themselves.
However, this isn’t always feasible or desirable and so the six Socratic questions can instead be asked of six (or more) different students (perhaps engaging with groups rather than individuals) or be used to frame every student’s written response.
In fact, the six Socratic questions can act as extremely useful writing prompts to ensure students’ essays are balanced, detailed, and considered.
Next time
Next time, we will explore ways of creating a classroom culture conducive to discussion and debate.
- Matt Bromley is an education journalist, author, and advisor with 25 years’ experience in teaching and leadership including as a secondary school headteacher and academy principal and multi-academy trust director. Matt is the lead lecturer on a national initial teacher training programme as well as a school improvement advisor. He remains a practising teacher. Matt is the author of numerous books on education and co-host of the award-winning SecEd Podcast. Find him on X (Twitter) @mj_bromley. Read his previous articles for SecEd via www.sec-ed.co.uk/authors/matt-bromley