CRITICAL THINKING & QUESTIONING

In 1948, a group of educators began developing a classification system of education

goals and objectives for the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains. Work on the
cognitive domain, commonly referred to as Bloom’s Taxonomy of the Cognitive
Domain*, was completed in 1956. The major idea of the taxonomy is that what educators
want students to know can be arranged in a hierarchy from less to more complex.
Students can "know" about a topic or subject at different levels. While most teacher-made
tests still test at the lower levels of the taxonomy, research has shown that students
remember more when they have learned to handle the topic at the higher levels of the
taxonomy.
If we stop the lesson after knowledge and comprehension of vocabulary and meaning,
we miss opportunities to work on students’ thinking skills as well as fluency. The EFL
classroom is a perfect environment for incorporating activities based on inferential
comprehension, evaluation, appreciation, comparisons, analyses, synthesis, etc.
Many of the handouts in this section are for background information only. Main
activities center around asking questions based on Bartlett’s Question Taxonomy, a
variation of the original Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Glasses don’t guarantee I can read

between the lines - that’s why
learners need questions based on
Bloom’s and Bartlett’s taxonomies.

*Bloom et al.’s Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain

Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook I: Cognitive domain with
4 other authors: (M. Englehart, E. Furst, W. Hill, and D Krathwohl).

Workshop by Kitty Johnson, Regional English Language Officer, US Embassy

johnsonka2@state.gov
Critical Thinking/Questioning
Main Sources: A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory (Cambridge Teacher Training and
Development) Penny Ur , 1995; Criticalthinking.org;

Comprehension Text and Questions (1)

(Ur, 95)

Read the text and answer the following questions:

Yesterday I saw the palgish flesser golining begrunt the bruck. He seemed very
chanderbil, so I did not jorter him. I just deabled to him quistly. Perhaps later he will
besand cander, and I will be able to rangel to him.

1. What was the flesser doing and where?

2. What sort of flesser was he?
3. Why did the writer decide not to jorter him?
4. How did she deable?
5. What did she hope would happen later?

Comprehension Text and Questions (2)

(Ur, 95)

Read the text and answer the following questions:

Yesterday I saw the new patient hurrying along the corridor. He seemed very upset, so I
did not follow him, just called to him gently. Perhaps later he will feel better and I will be
able to talk to him.

1. What is the problem described here?

2. Is the event taking place indoors or outside?
3. Did the writer try to get near the patient?
4. What do you think she said when she called to him?
5. What might the job of the writer be?
6. Why do you think she wants to talk to the patient?

Workshop by Kitty Johnson, Regional English Language Officer, US Embassy

johnsonka2@state.gov
Barrett’s Taxonomy of Cognitive Difficulty of Questions
Based on Barrett, 1968. Cited in Reading in a foreign language, Alderson & Uquart, Longman. 1984.

1. Literal comprehension: Requires the student to focus on ideas and information

explicitly stated in text. Recognition or recall of details, main ideas, a sequence,
comparisons, cause-effect relationships, character traits
2. Reorganization: Requires the student to recall from memory information explicitly
stated in the text. Classifying, outlining, summarizing, synthesizing
3. Inferential comprehension: Requires the student to use information explicitly stated
in the text along with personal experience and knowledge in order to conjecture and to
form hypotheses.
• Inferring supporting details: requires the student to conjecture about information that
might have been included in the text.
• Inferring the main idea
• Inferring sequence: requires the student to conjecture about what might have occurred
in addition to explicitly stated events; includes conjecture about extending events
beyond the completion of the text.
• Inferring comparisons, cause-and-effect relationships, character traits, author's
organization
• Predicting outcomes: requires the student to conjecture about the outcome of the text
after considering a portion of it
• Interpreting figurative language
4 Evaluation: Requires the student to compare information and ideas in a text with
material presented by the instructor or other authorities and with the student's own
knowledge and experience in order to form judgments of various kinds.
• Judgments of reality and fantasy: require the student to answer the question, "Could
these events really happen?"
• Judgments of fact or opinion: require the student to evaluate the author's or speaker's
ability to provide support for conclusions and the author's or speaker's intent
• Judgments of adequacy and validity: require the student to compare the text to related
materials in order to express agreement or disagreement
• Judgment of appropriateness: require the student to determine which part of the text is
most important (e.g. in defining characters, in determining outcomes, etc.)
• Judgments of worth, desirability, and acceptability: require the student to make
judgments based on value systems, morality, personal experience, etc.
5. Appreciation: (Emotional and aesthetic response ) Requires the student to articulate
emotional and aesthetic responses to the text according to personal standards and to
professional standards of literary forms, styles, genres, theories, personal experience, etc.
• Emotional response to the text: requires the student to articulate feelings of interest,
boredom, excitement, etc.
• Identification with characters or incidents
• Reactions to the author's or speaker's connotative and denotative use of language
• Reactions to imagery

Workshop by Kitty Johnson, Regional English Language Officer, US Embassy

johnsonka2@state.gov
Types of questions
• Fact vs. higher order
• Open vs. closed
Display vs. referential

Some Key Phrases to Use with the Taxonomy

1. Recognition: Find... Show me... Locate... Identify... Point out... Read the line that...
Recall: Tell me... State... List... Recall... Describe... What caused...What part of the
story describes…

2. Reorganization: Compare... Contrast... List... Paraphrase... Classify... Divide...

Summarize... "How is... different than" "How is... the same as"

3. Inferential Comprehension: Pretend... Suppose... Could... How would... What might

have happened if... If we assume, what might... What would be the consequences if...
What are the implications of…

4. Evaluation: Should... In your opinion... Do you agree... Do you believe... Would you
have... Is it right that…

5. Appreciation: Do you know anyone like... What did you think when... Did you
(dis)like... Why did you (dis)like...

Write questions at levels of increasing difficulty

(Stolen from O’Henry)

There was once a happy couple. They were young and in love, although they had little
money. The young man had a handsome pocket watch that he was very proud of, though
he had to be careful with it because he had no chain for it. His wife had beautiful long
blond hair, which hung loosely down to her waist. It looked like gold when it sparkled in
the sunshine. One fine Christmas Eve, the man and the woman went separately to town.
The next morning, they came downstairs to have breakfast. The wife was wearing a cap,
which was unusual for her. "Why are you wearing a cap?" asked the man. "Because I
have a present for you," she smiled and replied. She took off her hat, revealing that she
had cut her beautiful hair very short. "I've sold my hair to buy you something." With
that, she reached into her hat and pulled out a handsome chain for her husband's watch.
"Why are you so upset?" she asked, seeing that he was about to cry. He replied,
"Because I sold my watch to buy you these combs for your hair."

Workshop by Kitty Johnson, Regional English Language Officer, US Embassy

johnsonka2@state.gov