The Effect of Socratic Questioning on Secondary School Students’ Higher-Order Thinking

Abstract

In today’s information-driven world, the capacity to analyze, assess, and think critically about information has emerged as a core objective of education. As traditional content-based instruction shifts toward skill-based learning, fostering higher-order thinking skills among students is increasingly prioritized in education. This study aims to examine the effect of the Socratic questioning method on the higher-order thinking skills of 6th-grade middle school students within the context of the Turkish language course. A quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test control groups was employed. The experimental group received instruction based on Socratic questioning, while the control group followed traditional teaching methods. The study focused on three core cognitive skills: critical thinking, critical reading, and creative thinking. Data were collected quantitatively through valid and reliable instruments: the Cornell Critical Thinking Test, a Critical Reading Scale, and the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (verbal form). Statistical analyses revealed that the Socratic questioning method significantly improved students’ performance in all three areas. The findings indicated that structured classroom discussions, guided by philosophical inquiry and critical reflection, fostered students’ reasoning, idea generation, and textual interpretation skills. The research contributes to the field by combining these three higher-order skills in a single experimental framework and by highlighting the potential of Socratic dialogue in language-based learning. Implications for educational practice and future research are discussed considering the results.