3 ways of asking questions that promote critical thinking

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There are many active learning strategies that you can implement with your students to promote critical thinking. One of them is asking your students questions that stimulate deeper thinking.

When you ask your students a question, depending on how you do so, they use critical thinking skills such as recognising, analysing, and forming conclusions. J. Mills argued that the thoughtful use of questions may be the quintessential activity of an effective teacher. There are many ways to pose a question, and results differ based on how much thought you put into formulating a question.

Things to keep in mind while asking questions

• Avoid questions with set answers if you want to stimulate critical thinking. By doing so you allow for different points of view.

• If you decide to use provocative questions, stimulate your class by keeping them brief: include only one or two issues at a time.
• Wait at least 5 seconds for students to answer. Elliot argued that waiting as long as 10 seconds would be even better, because it allows students enough time to think creatively about different possibilities.

3 ways to ask questions in a safe digital environment

1. Open-ended questions

Students work in a safe digital environment, without the pressure of having to put their hand up to answer a question in front of the class. The wait time could be as long as you like. If you decide to limit the amount of time a student has to respond, you can add a timer to your question slide. Possibly, keep your questions as open as you can while being very clear about what you are asking. If you ask your students what they think about something, you could also ask them to specify and explain also ‘how’ they have come to form such an opinion.

2. Mind Maps

If your students work in a digital environment you can provide them with the opportunity to express themselves without being in the spotlight. You can also define the wait time. Mind mapping is great to establish prior knowledge, or scan awareness or opinions concerning a certain subject or theme. Make sure you inform your students that there are no wrong answers, and whatever they write is accepted and can become part of a conversation. Mind maps are a great way of starting classroom discussions and debates.3.

3. Photo questions

Also in this case students work in a digital environment, without the pressure of having to put up their hand to answer a question in front of the class. The wait time is as long as you like. A visual aid such as an inspiring photo helps students recall knowledge, feel curious, interested and inspired. There are many learning techniques in which a photo is shown several times accompanied by different questions. At first you could ask them what they see, for example, then what they think, and at last what they would like to know more. 👉 See, think, wonder

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