Questions That Promote Deeper Thinking
Surveys of college faculty reveal that their number one instructional goal is to promote critical
thinking, and reports on the status of American higher education have consistently called for
greater emphasis on the development of college students’ critical thinking skills. Definitions of
critical thinking range from the narrow (“a well-reasoned evaluative judgment”) to the broad
(“all thinking that involves more than the mere acquisition and recall of factual information”).
A more inclusive definition of critical thinking embraces all thought processes that are “deeper”
than memorization and recall of factual information. When students think critically, they think
deeply; they not only know the facts, but they take the additional step of going beyond the facts
to do something with them. Critical thinking involves:
• reflecting on the information received
• moving away from “surface” memorization and toward deeper levels of learning
• a shift away from viewing learning as the receiving of information from teacher or text to
a transformation of received information into a different form by the learner
• incorporates evaluation
To combat the prevalent student misconception that critical thinking means being “being
critical,” some use the term “deep thinking” skills.
The following can be used as a guide by instructors to develop teaching strategies that
intentionally promote the development of critical thinking skills and by students to assess
whether they are engaging in effective critical thinking when speaking, writing, or studying.
Each of the critical thinking skills is defined in terms of a corresponding mental action and is
followed by a trio of sample questions designed to promote that particular form of thinking and
can be adapted for use in specific courses.
1. “Open-ended” questions intentionally designed to provoke divergent thinking
Some college instructors spend little class time posing questions to students, or when questions
are posed, many are memory-level questions that ask for factual recall, the least likely to
promote student involvement. In contrast, “open-ended” questions calling for divergent thinking
(i.e., questions that allow for a variety of possible answers and encourage students to think at a
deeper level) are more effective in eliciting student responses than “closed” questions calling for
convergent thinking (i.e., questions that require students to narrow-in or converge on one, and
only one, correct answer).
Insert open-ended, divergent-thinking questions into your lecture notes as a reminder to pose
them at certain points in class, for general class or small group discussion. Students may be
asked to write a minute-paper in response to the question. Or students may write a minute paper
first and then discuss their written responses, allowing the more reflective students time to gather
their thoughts prior to verbalizing them and those self-conscious about public speaking a script to
use as a support for communicating their ideas orally.
Students can also learn to generate their own higher-level thinking questions. Using a technique
called “guided peer questioning,” students are first provided with a series of generic question
