Role of Socratic Questioning in Improving Critical Thinking skills among Nursing Students

Abstract

“A vital question among the present nurse educators is, to stimulate students’ meta-cognition
an approach to critical thinking that involves questioning one's thought processes and thereby
to enhance their critical thinking what educational strategies can be used?
More than few decades, nursing educators and scholars have been advocating for quality
nursing education that includes greater intellectual stimulation throughout the curriculum.
This has put the spotlight on pedagogic or teaching methods that strengthen students’ critical
thinking ability during their learning process (Kantar LD., 2014; Shirazi F, Heidari S, 2019).
However, this paradigm shift towards educating for meta-cognitive thinking presents
practical challenges for the nurse educators.
To provide appropriate answer to this question, we can refer to the methods recommended by
the ancient Greek philosopher and teacher Socrates. Socrates was an early proponent of the
application of meta-cognitive understanding within the academic setting. (Tanner KD, 2014)
Numerous scholars have explored the correlation between meta-cognitive thinking and
critical thinking (Halpern DF., 1998; Kuhn D, 2004) According to Magno 2017, metacognition is positively correlated with critical thinking, and its application within a process of
Socratic inquiry generates more effective critical thinking skills.
In this context, it can be said that nursing students who engage in meta-cognitive processes
tend to be more critical of their practices and views and are more likely to question their
assumptions. To foster critical thinking in nursing students, educators need to help them
engage in deeper thinking processes. As such, using Socratic inquiry within the classroom
setting can serve to enrich student nurses’ critical thinking approaches as they embark on
their learning journey.