Skip to main content

Interrogative method

It works as a teaching and learning strategy that uses questions to stimulate reflection, analysis and understanding of the concepts and content to be learnt.

Concept

Historically, the interrogative method dates back to Socrates, a Greek philosopher who used this approach to question his followers. Socrates conducted a series of questions that led his followers to identify inconsistencies in the answers, which generated self-questioning and critical reflection.

The interrogative method is based on verbal interaction between teachers and students, developed according to questions posed by the latter, with subsequent guidance or correction of the answers when necessary. Based on a questioning approach, it leads students to stimulate critical thinking.

It works as a teaching and learning strategy that uses questions to stimulate reflection, analysis and understanding of the concepts and content to be learnt. With this method, the student takes centre stage in the learning process by constructing their own knowledge through answering questions posed by the teacher.

Underlying principles

  • Questioning, since open questions are used that value the students' knowledge and experience.
  • Active student participation stimulated by challenging and relevant questions.
  • Critical thinking fostered by questions that force them to identify relevant information, evaluate arguments and form reasoned opinions.
  • Learning centred on the student, who takes a leading role in their own knowledge-building process by being encouraged to reflect critically on open-ended questions that force them to explore their ideas and thoughts and establish relationships between concepts.

Advantages

Encourages reflection and critical thinking
By questioning students, the teacher challenges them to reflect and develop critical thinking.

Increases motivation and involvement
Relevant and challenging questions arouse students' interest, stimulating motivation and engagement

Enables immediate feedback
Dialogue and interaction between students and teachers allows for immediate feedback

Improves understanding and learning
Relevant questions prompt reflection and critical thinking, resulting in improvements in understanding and therefore learning

Promotes joint and collaborative learning
The questioning method is an opportunity for students to learn from each other. With this in mind, the teacher should encourage discussion and debate on the different perspectives presented by the students.

Stages

Preparation Stages

  1. Define the objectives and learning outcomes that the teacher wants the students to achieve, which guarantees the planning and formulation of questions that are relevant to the learning process.
  2. Establishing the questions that will be asked of the students, bearing in mind that they can be used to reinforce what has already been learnt, to check the students' understanding of a given topic and to provide clarification.

Implementation Stages

  1. Start with a relevant question that arouses the students' interest in the topic in question. The question should be clear, concise and relevant to the objectives, learning outcomes and interest of the students.
  2. Conduct the interrogative dialogue in such a way as to ensure that all the students:
    1. participate in the discussion; they feel that the learning environment is safe and comfortable to share their ideas, without their self-esteem being affected and without fear of participating;
    2. they have time to think about their answers, which avoids risking incorrect or incomplete answers;
    3. they are encouraged to debate their colleagues' answers by presenting different perspectives;
  3. To get constructive feedback from the teacher on the answers provided, with the aim of improving critical thinking and understanding of the content. Summarise the main points made at the end of the discussion, which will help students consolidate their knowledge and understand the relationships between the different concepts.

References