2.4a Questioning in Critical Thinking

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From the course by The University of Sydney

Critical Thinking Skills for University Success

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The University of Sydney

Critical Thinking Skills for University Success

14 ratings

Course 3 of 5 in the Specialization Academic Skills for University Success

In this course, you will learn how to develop your Critical Thinking Skills to help you achieve success in your university studies. After completing this course, you will be able to: 1. Use critical thinking and argumentation in university contexts to improve academic results 2. Understand the importance and function of critical thinking in academic culture 3. Use a variety of thinking tools to improve critical thinking 4. Identify types of argument, and bias within arguments, in order to better evaluate the strength of arguments 5. Use evidence to support claims in arguments 6. Apply critical thinking and argumentation to real world problems and issues

From the lesson

Critical Thinking in Academic Contexts

2.4a Questioning in Critical Thinking6:58

2.4b Questioning a Text6:25

2.4c Questioning in Critical Thinking Expert Video4:12

Meet the Instructors

Katherine Olston
Deputy Director (Digital Learning)
University of Sydney Centre for English Teaching
Luke Alexander
Academic Literacy Instructor and MOOC Learning Instructor
Centre for English Teaching

[MUSIC]

So now that we have a bigger understanding of what arguments are and

how they change depending on where you are, let's have a look at one

of the fundamental pillars of critical thinking, taking a questioning stance.

In this lesson, we're going to explore answers to the question,

what is a questioning stance and why is it important?

Then we'll look at how you develop a questioning stance.

And lastly, what kinds of questions you should be asking in an academic context.

So, let's start by investigating what a questioning stance is.

A questioning stance is a way of approaching any kind of text.

Be it the conversation between you and your mother, a newspaper article,

a piece of research, a theory, or even a lecture.

It is as Browne and Keeley implyy a general approach to life or

way of owning your own opinions.

Of course we question things everyday about food, entertainment, transport,

fashion, and more.

For example, many of us, when we see an advertisement

don't go straight out to buy whatever it is that's being promoted.

Instead we ask questions like, is that something i need?

Do i even like that flavor, color or style?

Is it really worth that much money?

Of course many of these questions are implicit.

We've become so

used to asking them that we jump straight to the answer with little trouble.

However, when we don't know a lot about a subject,

we sometimes just accept information.

And this is why we need to develop a questioning stance.

A questioning stance in essence means that we question new information and

existing knowledge that relates that new information.

At university we need to become more specific, systematic, and disciplined in

the kinds of questions that we ask, when we ask them, and why we ask them.

And this is what we'll focus on in this lesson.

As Brick, Herke, and Wong suggest, one of the central ideas of academic culture

is that knowledge develops through debate and argument.

We ask questions like, how reliable is this source?

Is there an alternative conclusion to the one they've reached?

What assumptions have they made?

Or simply, why?

Indeed, questioning becomes as Paul and Elder and

King suggests, a form of independent learning.

The very act of generating questions regardless of whether those questions

are answered, enables you as a student to more fully engage with the topics covered.

The aim of questioning is not to pose cause in an argument or

undermine a theory, but to more fully understand it.

Take the example we gave you before.

We should question new information.

This is one of the key ideas we hope you take away from this lecture.

However, the example response questions each reveals something more.

What do you qualify as new information?

In this lesson, we've been using the term new

to apply to information that's new to you, regardless of when it was discovered.

This then leads us to our next question.

Do we just need to question new information?

Of course not.

When we learn new things we need to integrate them into our current

understanding.

That means that all knowledge needs to be questioned again

to see how it fits with the new information.

Lastly, is this always the case?

Well, it often depends on the situation and

what the purpose of the information is.

If you're learning how to drive and your instructor yells out, stop!

Your immediate reaction should be to hit the breaks, not question them.

However, later, when you're safe,

you should probably find out why they told you to stop.

Equally as Browne and Keeley point out, some questions are unnecessary.

They call these the who cares questions?

Take this example.

Right here, right now that question and

all the follow-up questions are relatively meaningless.

Of course, what counts as a who cares questions will depend on the field and

sometimes on who is asking the question or who the audience is.

However, in general, there are particular kinds of questions

that are meaningful regardless of the field.

For the rest of this lesson I'd like to introduce you to two broad categories of

questions that you can ask of a text in order to really learn and engage with it.

Of course there are overlaps between this two kinds of questioning and

both types of questions are useful.

The first broad category of question

are the types of question that encourage us to really think about and

engage with the content of the text, and integrate it with our own knowledge.

These questions require us to analyze, apply, or compare and

contrast information between text or ideas and prior knowledge.

For example, we might ask a question like, what's the difference between A and B?

What would happen if a particular situation occurred?

Or how could A be used to assist, improve or alleviate B?

What are the weaknesses of this theory, position or experiment?

Or do you agree with this theory, position or the results of this experiment and why?

The second broad category of questions is those that question the text and

its positional purpose within the field.

We might ask, for example, what's the intended purpose of this text?

Who's the author and what are their qualifications?

Does the author have any biases?

Does the argument make logical sense?

Can you verify the claims made in this text?

Or what evidence is the author using, and is it credible?

It's vital to remember that even when you approach a text you agree with

you should still take a questioning stance.

As we've mentioned before, critical thinking isn't about proving your opponent

wrong, in fact, often you aren't even arguing against anyone.

Questioning a text and thinking critically about it really is about making sure you

know as much as possible about something, and can come to your own conclusions.

In the next lesson we'll have a look at a short text and

show you what questions you might ask, when you might ask them, and why.

[MUSIC]

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