Socratic questioning and Paul's six types of Socratic questions

Socratic questioning  is disciplined questioning that can be used to pursue thought in many directions and for many purposes including ideas, truth of things, issues, problems, logical implications of thought. Socratic questioning is systematic, disciplined, and deep and usually focuses on fundamental concepts, principles, theories, issues or problems. It is referred to in teaching. When teachers use Socratic questioning in teaching, their purpose may be to probe student thinking.

In teaching, teachers can use Socratic questioning for at least two purposes:

1). To deeply probe student thinking and to help them develop intellectual humility in the process

2). To foster students' abilities to ask Socratic questions

Critical thinking and Socratic questioning both seek meaning and truth. Socratic questioning is an explicit focus on framing self-directed, disciplined questions to achieve that goal. R.W. Paul's gives six types of Socratic questions:

Questions for clarification
Questions that probe assumptions
Questions that probe reasons and evidence
Questions about Viewpoints and Perspectives
Questions that probe implications and consequences
Questions about the question