Online course discussion is an excellent opportunity for teaching and prompting critical thinking. By presenting challenging open-ended questions, you can engage in a sort of asynchronous Socratic questioning with your students.
Use the following framework to structure your discussion questions or prompts.
- Provide a setup. Present a statement, observation, or scenario that requires students to reexamine or apply what they're learning.
- Ask students to commit. Ask a specific question, one that won't have an obvious right answer, likely in one of the following categories.
- Personal reflections: “What do you think about ___?” “How do you feel about ___?”
- Past experiences: “In the past, how have you responded when ___?” “Have you ever had an experience where ___?”
- Rational conclusions: “What conclusion do you draw from ___|?” “Of ___, ___, or ___, which choice makes the most sense given ___?”
- Process or order: “How would you go about ___?” “In what order would you ___?”
- Guesses or estimates: “What would you do if ___?” “What might have happened if ___?”
- Superlatives: “What is the worst approach to ___?” “What is the most appropriate ___?”
- Ask students to defend their commitments. Give students clear directions for defending or explaining their responses.
- "Why?"
- "Why or why not?"
- "Explain your reasoning."
- "Defend your response through one of the theoretical frameworks in this week's reading."
- "Explain your response using data from this week's field observations."
See also:
MacKnight, C. B. (2000). Teaching Critical Thinking through Online Discussions. Educause Quarterly, 23 (4), 38–41.
Murchú , D. Ó., & Muirhead, B. (2005). Insights into Promoting Critical Thinking in Online Classes. International Journal of Instructional Technology.