Promoting Students’ Critical Thinking Through Socratic Method: The Views and Challenges

Abstract

: Critical thinking skills (CTS) is one of the main focuses of the educational system around the globe as a means to equip students with the 21st century learning. In parallel, Malaysia too highlights critical thinking skills with the curriculum transformation witnessing more emphasis on student-centred learning approaches. These include constructivism, mastery learning and inquiry-based learning. However, most teachers find difficulties in embarking on these new ways of teaching. Hence, this qualitative study sought to explore teachers’ views and the challenges when implementing a subset of inquiry-based learning called Socratic method in classrooms. The researchers employed a purposive sampling method to select five (5) teachers teaching various subjects to be involved in the semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis of the data revealed that most of the teachers had positive views on the application of the Socratic method specially to enhance the critical thinking skills. Despite that, there were a few challenges faced by the teachers particularly on their content knowledge, knowledge on questioning methods, class participation, topics and time constraints. Based on the challenges extracted, this study concluded that the teachers require due support particularly in terms of their subject knowledge and teaching skills in carrying out the Socratic method in classrooms effectively. Thus, this study proposes for further actions to be taken in helping teachers by providing professional trainings and developmental programs to effectively implement the Socratic questioning in the classrooms.