By J. D. WRIGHT and LINDSAY ONUFER
Often mistermed “The Socratic Method,” the practice of teaching through questioning has a more complex and roundabout history than this moniker suggests (Schneider, 2013). The Socratic Method is often associated with questioning procedures in legal education sometimes linked to hostility, intimidation and humiliation in the classroom environment and made famous in films like “The Paper Chase” (Peterson, 2009). In reality, all instructors ask and solicit student questions when they teach. Reflecting on how we design and use questions can help faculty use this popular teaching strategy most effectively.
Teaching through questioning is an active learning technique that can be deployed in any discipline or course modality and benefit students in several ways. Using well-designed questions can promote improved:
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Knowledge retention and understanding (Nappi, 2018)
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Intellectual maturity, including a greater ability to tolerate ambiguity (Burns et al., 2016)
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Attendance; traditional lectures often have as little as 50 percent student attendance, a number that dramatically increases when instructors use questioning techniques (Brooke 2006)
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Students’ sense of belonging in the classroom (Altorf 2019)
As a first step, instructors should explain the purpose of using questioning, emphasizing to students that the technique is not designed to be antagonistic (Peterson, 2009). Whether in a syllabus, during an early session of class, or at periodic intervals during the semester, instructors who want to introduce questioning practices into their teaching should stress to students that the goal of questioning is primarily formative rather than evaluative. Responding to questions helps students sharpen their thinking and to frame an environment of collective learning and discovery.
In this regard, instructors need to exercise care in the types of questions that they pose. Open-ended questions with wide ranges of possible credible responses generate more student participation than narrow questions designed merely to elicit correct statements of fact (Burns et al., 2016). Moreover, students generally perceive the open-ended question as less threatening than a question designed to elicit a single “right” answer.
Using how and why questions rather than what and which questions fosters a more positive classroom environment and a more vigorous student response. Giving students data, an image, or a vignette or case study to examine questions can also increase the cognitive challenge of responding to questions by promoting application, analysis, and evaluation.
Questions can also be used create student-to-student dialogues. Asking students to support or elaborate on one another’s claims with examples, explanations and evidence or challenge them using counter-examples can encourage productive discussion and collaboration (Peterson, 2009).
Instructors using questioning techniques can position themselves as facilitators instead of interrogators by modeling the respectful yet skeptical thought process of a reflective, analytical listener. Some modeling behaviors might include:
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Pursuing clarity of expression through careful follow-up questions that encourage students to define their terms and state their assumptions explicitly.
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Searching for the evidence and reasons students offer in support of their claims and then probing that material more deeply.
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Considering alternative points of view, whether as a devil’s advocate or otherwise.
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Attempting to reconcile multiple viewpoints on a subject (Burns, Stephenson, Bellamy, 2016, p. 373).
Faculty also can reduce students’ anxiety about responding to questions by allowing students to write down their thoughts or discuss their answers with classmates before volunteering to respond. Think/pair/share activities, for example, have been shown to increase student collaboration and reduce anxiety about answering questions (Mundelsee & Jurkowski, 2021). Using audience response tools like Top Hat, which allows for anonymous responses, can also encourage whole-class participation (even in large classes) without creating pressure for any single student to volunteer their answer.
To learn more about using questioning techniques in teaching, contact the Center for Teaching and Learning at teaching@pitt.edu to schedule a consultation or review the following resources to extend your learning:
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Questioning Strategies from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
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Questioning Strategies to Engage Students from Northern Illinois University
J.D. Wright is a teaching consultant, and Lindsay Onufer is a senior teaching consultant and program manager, both at the University Center for Teaching & Learning.
REFERENCES
Altorf, H.M. (2019). Dialogue and discussion: Reflections on a Socratic Method. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, 18(1), 60-75.
Brooke, S.L. (2006). Using the case method to teach online classes: Promoting Socratic dialogue and critical thinking skills. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 18(2), 142-49.
Burns, L.R., Stephenson, P.L, & Bellamy, K. (2016). “The Socratic Method: Empirical assessment of a psychology capstone course.” Psychology Learning and Teaching, 15(3), 370-83.
Mundelsee, L. & Jurkowski, S. (2021). Think and pair before share: Effects of collaboration of students’ in-class participation. Learning and Individual Differences, 88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2021.102015
Nappi, J.S. (2018). The importance of questioning in developing critical thinking skills. The Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin International Journal for Professional Educators, 30-41. https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/cobblearning.net/dist/6/3101/files/2018/05/The-Importance-of-Questioning-2aqkc5j.pdf
Peterson, E. (2009). Teaching to think: Applying the Socratic Method outside the law school setting. Journal of College Teaching and Learning, 6(5), 83-87.
Schneider, J. (2013). Remembrance of things past: A history of the Socratic Method in the United States. Curriculum Inquiry, 43(5), 613-40.