Asking Questions to Promote Critical Thinking

Using questions to intercept or interrupt informal conversation is a simple way to make the most of any moment and to promote critical thinking. Everyone makes all kinds of assumptions in order to arrive at opinions of how things are, what is important, and how things “should be.” Drawing out participants’ thoughts through the use of critical questions can also indicate the areas where there are patterns in experiences, as well in what girls are curious about. These curiosities or commonalities can point to possible topics for future workshops.

As a facilitator, it is also good to get into the practice of questioning yourself, being transparent about your own learning process, and sharing your questions with the girls in the program.

Key questions to encourage critical thinking could include:

• Why?

• Where did you learn that?

• When did you first think that?

• Reframe discussions to raise awareness about predominant assumptions. For example, asking: “When do people first know that they are straight?” could be helpful to reframe discussions about sexuality, especially when gay/lesbian/queer identities are assumed to be out of the norm.