The use of the Socratic inquiry to facilitate critical thinking in nursing education

Abstract

Background: Critical thinking is a skill that nurse practitioners are required to have. Socratic inquiry can be used to facilitate critical thinking in nursing. Nurse educators seek methods to infuse into teaching content to facilitate students' critical thinking skills, and one of such methods is the use of Socratic inquiry as a teaching method.Aim: This article aims to explore and describe how Socratic inquiry can be used to facilitate critical thinking in nursing education.Setting: This study took place in a nursing department at a university in Johannesburg.Methods: A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual design was used. Purposive sampling was used to draw a sample of 15 nurse educators determined by data saturation. Miles, Huberman and Saldaña's methodology of qualitative data analysis was used. Lincoln and Guba's strategies for trustworthiness and Dhai and McQuoid-Mason's principles of ethical consideration were used.Results: Three main themes emerged: the context necessary for Socratic inquiry, dispositions in Socratic inquiry and strategies to use in Socratic inquiry to facilitate critical thinking skills of students.Conclusions: Socratic inquiry can be used both in education and practice settings to facilitate the use of critical thinking skills to solve problems.

Action learning sets for supporting postgraduate mental health nurses’ transition to professional practice: A qualitative study

“…Although the sample of eleven participants is small, the evaluation of the ALS process does concur with several explanations from the ALS literature (Machin & Pearson, 2014; Makhene, 2019; McGill & Beaty, 2002; Walia & Marks‐ Maran, 2014).…”

“…As a nursing academic, I was aware of the importance of developing critical thinking in novice nurses to support their transition to a professional practice and to make meaning of the world of work. This was achieved by using techniques from Socratic inquiry such as questioning the questions, challenging assumptions and thinking in a broader, social cultural and political context and is well supported in contemporary nursing literature (Adam & Juergensen, 2019; Makhene, 2019; McKie & Naysmith, 2014; Roberts, 2015).…”

“…I was keen to see how an ALS would work as a learning and supervision tool in the clinical education of postgraduate nursing students as this group was not yet socialized in critical thinking (Chang & Daly, 2015), also to develop their professional identity (Happell, 2014), and build their critical reflection ‘muscle’. Makhene (2019; 1025) states that 'Critical thinking is a learnt skill, which means it can be facilitated during teaching and learning'.…”

“…ALS comprises a small group known as set of colleagues (6‐8), who meet regularly with the aim of learning from each other’s issues by applying Socratic questioning (Haith & Whittingham, 2012; Makhene, 2019). The term Socratic refers to the techniques employed by the philosopher Socrates that he used to examine values, principles, and beliefs in ancient Greece.…”

“…The term Socratic refers to the techniques employed by the philosopher Socrates that he used to examine values, principles, and beliefs in ancient Greece. Socratic questions have been employed by nurse educators as a method of teaching and learning to facilitate critical thinking skills of nursing students (Makhene, 2019; Sommer et al . 2020).…”