Developing Critical Thinking through Questioning Strategy among Fourth Grade Students

Researchers all over the world unanimously agree upon the idea that teaching students to think critically is principal aim of all level education. The researchers observed as student and teacher that in Pakistani elementary public schools, teachers are overly emphasized the coverage of content through transferring factual information and rote memorization. Usually, in an English classroom they use drill methods and grammar translation methods to facilitate students which do little to foster critical thinking. They do not promote other teaching strategies such as questioning, role play, debate and pair work which are essential for developing critical thinking among students. The focus of this research was to examine the effectiveness of teaching strategy questioning in the development of critical thinking among elementary students. This study used case study methodology and design experiment approach. Evidence was collected in a usual classroom context in the form of observation (audio video recording), questionnaire and field notes. The focus was evaluated through students discourse emerged during student-student and teacher-student interaction and change of their critical thinking by pre and post questionnaire analysis. Findings suggest that questioning is a productive teaching approach in promoting critical thinking among students in Pakistani context.