Questioning in the Critical Thinking Classroom

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Questioning in the Critical Thinking Classroom

• TACT
• Spring 2005

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Purpose of Todays Workshop

• We will address these questions
• Why is questioning essential in a critical
  thinking classroom?
• What kind of classroom environment encourages
  critical inquiry?
• As instructors, how can we create good questions,
  questions that require critical thinking? How can
  we create good class activities around those
  questions?
• How can we foster a questioning mindset in our
  students?

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The Importance of Questioning

• Critical thinking involves asking questions. It
  involves asking questions that need to be asked,
  asking good questions, questions that go to the
  heart of the matter. Critical thinking involves
  noticing that there are questions that need to be
  addressed (Nosich, 2005).
• Instructors and students alike need to cultivate
  the skill of asking good questions.

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• It is not possible to be a good thinker and a
  poor questioner. Questions define tasks, express
  problems, and delineate issues. They drive
  thinking forward. . . . Thinking in disciplines
  is driven, not by answers, but by essential
  questions (Elder Paul, 2002).

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Web Resources from the Foundation for Critical
Thinking

• The Critical Mind is a Questioning Mind
• The Role of Questions in Teaching, Thinking, and
  Learning
• The Questioning Mind Newton, Darwin, and Einstein

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Group Discussion Creating a Climate Conducive to
Questioning

• What kind of classroom environment encourages
  critical inquiry?
• Come up with three answers at your table to share
  with the whole group.

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A Questioning Classroom

• Classmates know each others names and are
  comfortable with each other and instructor.
• Wrong answers are okay trial and error is how
  we learn thinking is often a messy process.
• Everyone is expected to participate students are
  called upon by name.
• Responses are held to intellectual standards.
• Critical listening is expected Students are held
  responsible for listening to and summarizing each
  others answers.
• Students are expected to come to class with
  questions about the reading/topic those
  questions drive discussions/lectures.

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Types of Questions

• One System one definitive answer
• No System a subjective choice
• Conflicting Systems a consideration of competing
  answers
• For more info, see Foundation Materials Three
  Categories of Questions

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Category 1 One System Questions

• Requires evidence and reasoning within a system
• Result one correct answer
• Leads to knowledge
• Examples Did it rain here yesterday? How does
  the hard drive on a computer operate? What is the
  differential of this equation? Under what
  conditions do atomic chain reactions take place?

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In your groups. . .

• Write at least five Category 1 questions from
  your respective disciplines. Please write them
  large enough to be seen by the entire group.
• We will ask each group to share their questions,
  holding up the paper so everyone can read it.

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Category 3 Conflicting System Questions

• Requires evidence and reasoning within
  conflicting systems
• Result better and worse answers well-supported
  reasoned vs. poorly supported reasoneduse
  specific criteria (Intellectual Standards) as
  basis for evaluation
• Leads to reasoned judgment
• Examples Rank the four categories of biological
  molecules in order from most important to least
  explain and defend your rankings.

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In your groups. . .

• Write at least five Category 3 questions from
  your respective disciplines. Please write them
  large enough to be seen by the entire group.
• We will ask each group to share their questions,
  holding up the paper so everyone can read it.

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Category 2 No System Questions

• Calls for stating a subjective preference
• Result a subjective opinion
• Cannot be assessed
• Examples Would you rather have short hair or
  long hair? Do you prefer this poem or that one?
  Which movie do you like better? Do you prefer
  American or British literature?

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In your groups. . .

• Write at least five Category 2 questions from
  your respective disciplines. Please write them
  large enough to be seen by the entire group.
• Discuss how these Category 2 questions could feed
  into Category 3 questions.
• We will ask each group to share their questions,
  holding up the paper so everyone can read it.

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Fostering a Questioning Mindset in Students

• Students need to learn how to ask the
  questionsto notice that there are questions that
  need to be addressedto pose the problems
  themselves. Discuss the importance of questioning
  to critical thinking and to learning.
• Use questions as a ticket to class.
• Ask students to write down their questions at the
  end of each class period.
• Routinely ask students to create category 3
  questions from their reading.
• Ask students to create problems/questions to
  solve dont give them the problem/question.

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• Give students these questions (or help them
  generate such questions) routinely use in class
• How does what I learn in this course relate to my
  own experiences?
• How can I use what I learn here in my own life?
• Can I think up my own examples?
• How does this subject matter relate to other
  courses I am taking?
• What is the evidence behind this?
• How do the topics in this course fit together?
• What is the purpose of this course? What is its
  central question? How does each topic fit into
  the central question?
• Why?
• What are some alternative ways of solving this
  problem?
• What is a good way to begin solving this problem?
• Do I have all the information I need?
• Whats the purpose behind the problem?
• How does the problem fit into a real context?
  (Nosich, 2005)

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Resources

• Linda Elder and Richard Pauls The Miniature
  Guide to the Art of Asking Essential Questions
  (2002). Foundation for Critical Thinking.
• Richard Paul and Linda Elders The Miniature
  Guide for Those Who Teach on How to Improve
  Student Learning (2002). Pp. 43-44.
• Gerald Nosichs Learning to Think Things Through
  A Guide to Critical Thinking Across the
  Curriculum (2005). Pearson, Prentice Hall.
• Foundation for Critical Thinking Home Page