Using Socratic Questioning Strategy to Enhance Critical Thinking Skill of Elementary School Students

Critical thinking is one of the core 21st century skills, and it is vital for individuals to start mastering this skill from a young age. Socratic questioning is a systematic and disciplined string of questioning that is used to support the enhancement of critical thinking skill through the exploration of complex ideas, understanding the facts, identifying issues, examine assumptions and more. This study proposed to design critical thinking enhancement exercises for elementary school students using Socratic questioning strategy. Throughout the enhancement exercise, the study introduced Socratic questioning strategy was designed as hints to support students in completing the exercise and have deeper thoughts prior to sharing their thoughts regarding a given issue or problem. The results of the study indicated that the designed critical thinking learning sessions were effective in enhancing students' critical thinking skill. More importantly, the results also indicated that Socratic questioning strategy had provided students with a positive and significant support in the enhancement of their critical thinking skill.