The Art of Asking: Teaching Through Questioning

Abstract

Since the time of Socrates, educators have acknowledged that questioning is a key instructional tool. Many contemporary teaching and evaluation techniques, however, rely almost exclusively on developing and then probing learners' understanding with standard multiple-choice testing formats. Recent reports about medical education—especially the Report of the Panel on the General Professional Education of the Physician and College Preparation for Medicine ( 1 Physicians for the twenty-first century: the GPEP report—report of the Panel on the General Professional Education of the Physician and College Preparation for Medicine. Association of American Medical Colleges, Washington, DC1984 Google Scholar ), and the ACME-TRI report ( 2 Association of American Medical Colleges ACME-TRI report: educating medical students; assessing change in medical education—the road to implementation. Acad Med. 1993; June Google Scholar )—criticize overreliance on so-called passive teaching methods (eg, lectures and evaluation methods), which test the “regurgitation” of learned material. The aforementioned reports encourage a more active, problem-oriented approach to learning that fosters critical thinking. The curricula of many residency programs, however, have changed very little and remain dominated by an apprenticeship model that relies substantially on lecture and case presentation. Herein, we highlight the important role that questioning can play, both in fostering a more active, problem-oriented approach to learning and enabling residents to improve their critical thinking skills.