Asking Perceptive Questions Is Crucial to Students’ Critical Thinking

I would add an eighth guideline to D. Alan Beasley’s “A Brief Guide for Teaching and Assessing Critical Thinking in Psychology,” from the December 2010 Observer: developing students’ abilities to ask perceptive questions.

As teachers, we spend a great deal of class time either providing information to students or asking students questions. We ignore a more crucial task: helping students become better at seeking information for themselves.

One of the activities I used to teach students to ask perceptive questions is showing them an empty covered box (at least the size of a shoe box) and tell them the following story: “I have been asked to help design a new model for high schools. In researching models for restructured schools around the country, I located an award winning model with an architect’s plan and that is what is inside the box. Before I show you the model, I would like to see if you can guess the design. I’ll answer your questions truthfully, but the questions must be ones that can be answered yes or no.” Students then guess at the design of the school for five minutes or so before I reveal to them that the box is empty.

The activity induces students to ask perceptive questions. The goal of the activity is to teach students to incorporate new information into what they already know, thereby creating a model which is a product of their collective imaginations.

My job as teacher is to keep track of students’ questions and provide consistent answers. The students create the “restructured school” and it is always different. At the end of the activity, I ask students to think about their own thinking processes, how they revise their thinking based upon new information, and how such a process is useful in thinking about other problems.