Best Practice

A questioning classroom: 38 Socratic questions for your teaching

Pedagogy Lesson planning
In this five-part series, Matt Bromley looks at how we can create a questioning classroom. In part two, he explains 10 ways of questioning to promote critical thinking, looks at dialogic teaching, and offers a list of 38 Socratic questions
Image: Adobe Stock

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:

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.

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