Teaching students to question

Objective The purpose of the study was to teach medical students the strategies of critical questioning to determine the effect on studentsʹ critical thinking skills, confidence in their ability to ask questions, and interaction between student and instructor. Study design Workshops were developed to teach medical students how to systematically ask critical questions. Sixty-two consenting students in their third-year obstetrics and gynecology clerkship were divided according to alternate rotations to either attend the workshops (n = 28) or not (n = 41). Results Medical students who attended the workshops scored higher on the California Critical Thinking Skills Test mean total score (study group 25.1 [± 0.7 SEM] vs control group 22.9 [± 0.6 SEM], P = .028), subscales of inference (12.6 [± 0.3 SEM] vs 11.2 [± 0.3 SEM], P = .003), and of deductive reasoning (12.7 [± 0.4 SEM] vs 10.9 [± 0.3 SEM], P = .001). Conclusion Teaching students to ask critical questions improves critical thinking as measured by the California Critical Thinking Skills Test.