Questioning culture in chemistry lessons and the development of scientific thinking

Abstract

In many chemistry classrooms, students often focus on obtaining the “correct answer” rather than learning to ask meaningful scientific questions. This limits curiosity, weakens argumentation, and reduces opportunities to connect chemical concepts with evidence and real-world phenomena. A strong questioning culture – where students learn to generate, refine, and justify questions –supports key components of scientific thinking such as hypothesizing, causal reasoning, model-based explanation, and critical evaluation of claims. Therefore, studying questioning culture in chemistry lessons is highly relevant for competency-based education, inquiry-oriented pedagogy, and improving conceptual understanding beyond memorization. The aim of this study is to examine how building a systematic questioning culture in chemistry lessons contributes to the development of students’ scientific thinking. Specifically, the study seeks to (1) identify instructional strategies that increase the quality and frequency of student-generated questions, (2) describe how different question types (descriptive, causal, predictive, and evaluative) support scientific reasoning, and (3) propose classroom-based tools for monitoring progress through formative assessment [1].