Preschool teachers’ perceptions on the use of questioning strategy during storytelling to develop children’s critical thinking in Central China

ABSTRACT

Preschool teachers’ questioning is an important part of the teaching and learning process as questions can drive children’s thinking (Nappi 2017). As one of the most common pedagogical tasks in preschool, storytelling has the potential to bring the world to the classroom using imagined or real stories. However, to date, there is limited knowledge about teachers’ use of questioning in storytelling classes to develop children’s thinking skills. Based on sociocultural theory (Vygotsky 1978) and revised Bloom’s taxonomy, this study aims to explore how preschool teachers use questioning during storytelling classes to develop children’s critical thinking. By employing a case study design, the study involved 13 preschool teachers in China who were teaching children aged 5 and 6. Data were gathered for 6 months using semi-structured interviews, classroom observations and document analysis. The findings expanded the understanding of using the revised Bloom’s taxonomy as a reference in generating questions. The study suggested strengthening teachers’ practices in generating different types of questions for each of the revised Bloom’s taxonomy.

KEYWORDS:

• Preschool teachers
• children
• critical thinking
• storytelling
• questioning strategy

Introduction

Preschool education is crucial in providing quality education for children. At the early stage of education, developing critical thinking (hereafter CT) in children is a crucial foundation for their higher cognitive development. The Delphi Report (Facione 1990) recommended that early childhood education begins by focusing on developing children’s thinking skills. A study has demonstrated that children aged 3 to 4 can differentiate the credibility of information from different sources (Polat and Aydın 2020). Questioning plays a significant role in the teaching and learning process as it drives students’ thinking (Nappi 2017).

Storytelling is a traditional and ancient way of communicating information through two-way interaction between the narrator and one or more listeners. As storytelling is widely used as a pedagogical task in preschool education, this study aimed to explore how preschool teachers can use questioning as a strategy during storytelling sessions to develop children’s CT.

Literature review

There are several definitions of CT such as by Paul and Elder proposed that CT is good and logical thinking (2020), Willingham proposed that CT is a comprehensive analysis of problem and a rational approach, reasoning conclusions based on existing facts and evidence and supporting rational evidence (2007), and McPeck argued that CT is an activity with reflection and scepticism (2017). In this study, we adopt the six levels proposed in Bloom’s taxonomy to refer CT as remembering, understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating and creating. The six levels describe different aspects and processes of thinking development. The way to cultivate students’ CT can follow Socrates’ questioning teaching method. Teachers’ questioning serves as a cognitive activity to enhance teaching and learning (Elder and Paul 2019). CT is a significant aspect of cognitive quality. Skillfully asking good questions in the classroom requires creative interventions from teachers to facilitate learning. When teachers effectively utilize students’ prior knowledge, thinking and questioning to guide them to the next level, problems can create the zone of proximal development (Salmon and Barrera 2021). Teacher questions are an important teaching behaviour in teacher–student interaction, which plays an important role in effective teaching activities and the development of students’ CT skills. In preschool education, the Chinese government also emphasizes the importance of fostering CT skills in children. Authoritative documents such as the Guidelines for Kindergarten Education and the Guidelines for Learning and Development of 3 to 6 Age Children recommend that preschool teachers should pay attention to cultivating children’s thinking and approach toward learning during kindergarten education (MOE 2012).

Storytelling is an ancient and traditional way of information exchange (Ellis and Brewster 2014), and it remains one of the most commonly used teaching strategies for teachers in the classroom. Children like reading, writing and listening to stories, to learn more about the world and life. Many studies have shown that storytelling can develop children’s language and literacy (Flynn 2016; Lenhart et al. 2020). Similarly, there is good evidence that children can develop their language skills and improve their thinking by listening to stories (Kerry-Moran and Aerila 2019). The development of children’s thinking is inseparable from the development of language. Language not only impacts society and culture but also influences the thought and conduct of individuals. A recent study found a close correlation between the development of children’s language ability and their thinking ability (Kim and Hachey 2021). Therefore, the CT of preschool children can be improved by training their critical reading and writing abilities.

Although many studies have found that storytelling is beneficial to children, there are still many teachers who are unaware of the value of using storytelling in the classroom (Walan 2017). At the same time, O’Reilly, Devitt, and Hayes (2022) reviewed the research on CT teaching in preschool education and found that classroom interaction, thinking language and story-based methods are the ways to carry out CT teaching in preschool education. They suggested that future research needs to focus on how storytelling can be used to develop children’s CT. In the storytelling class, questions are the main way to guide children to understand the story but also a tool to inspire their thinking.

Bloom’s taxonomy is employed in this study for CT. Bloom pioneered a framework for classifying CT based on levels of CT, called Bloom’s taxonomy model (Bloom et al. 1956). 21^st Century Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy Framework is utilized to cultivate CT skills through a series of stages: remembering, understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating and creating (Anderson and Krathwohl 2001). This hierarchical model is enduring in teaching, assisting in categorizing cognitive skills and providing a structure for student learning. The development of CT is a gradual process. In this process, students first master the knowledge at the bottom of the pyramid, enabling them to subsequently grasp the knowledge at the top. Each level of the taxonomy framework encompasses a variety of tasks aimed at driving students’ thought processes. Some tasks require students to recall information from memory, while others necessitate higher-level CT skills such as problem-solving, analysing, creating or evaluating data (Bernadowski 2006).

The purpose of CT in preschool education is to enlighten children’s development of CT and encourage their tendency to think critically. There are different teaching strategies for cultivating children’s CT. Lipman (2003) proposed that a separate course be offered in schools to train and develop children’s CT. The course is called Philosophy for Children. An experimental study found that Philosophy for Children courses had a positive impact on children’s CT development (Rahdar, Pourghaz, and Marziyeh 2018).

Similarly, teachers’ questioning is a prevalent practice in teaching activities, and effective questioning techniques in the classroom can foster children’s CT. However, questioning is a skill that is not easy to master and it is a crucial strategy for developing children’s CT (Lennon 2017). The Socratic method, introduced by Socrates, promotes the development of learners’ thinking. Paul thought that through Socratic questioning to stimulate children’s thinking, the dialogue type discussion naturally occurs (Zhang 2019).

Teachers’ questioning is a common teaching behaviour in the teaching process. However, at present, preschool teachers in China do not pay enough attention to questioning strategies in storytelling classes. Many teachers often neglect to ask effective questions of children in storytelling classes (Du 2017). Some studies have also found that there are unreasonable phenomena in the types of questions asked by teachers in storytelling classes. For example, in the storytelling class, teachers mainly ask closed questions and do not provide children with the opportunity to think. Closed questions limit the development of children’s imagination and thinking ability (Lu 2020). In addition, Setyarini, Muslim, Rukmini, Yuliasri, and Mujianto (2018) suggested that in storytelling classes, teachers can provide open-ended questions to stimulate the development of students’ higher-order thinking skills. These open-ended questions allow students to express their opinions and provide certain comments and reasonable reasons. Research has further demonstrated that developing students’ CT skills and higher-level thinking skills requires various educational processes (Padmanabha 2018). In teaching activities, teachers are not only discriminators of information but also learners who accept the opinions and ideas expressed by students. It is a common teaching behaviour for preschool teachers to ask questions in class, but the skills and quality of questioning are the long-term goals of teachers’ professional development.

This study is based on sociocultural theory. Vygotsky (1978) proposed that learning can only occur when children interact and cooperate with people or peers in the external environment. The sociocultural theory emphasizes that individual learning and knowledge construction is the process of individual interaction with the external environment and people (John-Steiner and Mahn 1996). From the perspective of this theory, individual learning is interactive and situational, which is the result of learners’ participation in external practice and environment. Children understand the external world through interaction with the external environment or people, and questions are a good interaction in the classroom (Vera John-Steiner and Holbrook Mahn 2011). Similarly, proposed that children’s cognitive development is an interactive process in which children participate in social activities under the guidance of adults or peers. Children’s interaction with the external environments helps to expand their skills in cultural understanding and improve their language skills.

In the process of learning, daily concepts and experiences are full of personal meaning, but they are not systematic when connected with specific experiences. Scientific concepts are systematic and universal and initially have no personal meaning. However, scientific concepts cannot develop automatically. There needs to be a teaching process to connect daily concepts with scientific concepts. In this process, teachers need to raise questions related to daily life, make abstract concepts full of personal meaning and promote children’s learning and thinking development. Teachers play a crucial role in the classroom dialogue with children, ensuring that they participate in the dialogue process to gain the ability to solve problems and conflicts. In the process of teaching, when teachers provide scaffolding for children’s language and visual performance, the social practice that they engage in not only expands children’s reasoning ability but also impacts children’s future learning. Dialogue is essentially an open exchange of thoughts, in which children can share their opinions on a problem, gain ideas for solving them, inspire each other and enhance their personal thinking abilities.

To date, however, there has been limited research on how teachers can use questioning in storytelling classes to develop children’s thinking skills. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the use of questioning by preschool teachers to cultivate children’s CT in storytelling classes. Similarly, the research question of this study is what questioning strategies do preschool teachers use in storytelling classes to develop children’s CT?

Methods

The topic of the study was discovered in a long-term study by the first author and piqued the authors’ interest. This study adopts the qualitative case study. In a case study, the researchers are more interested in the research process, the research setting and the exploration of the research topic than in the research outcomes and the confirmation of the link between the research variables (Merriam 1998). The case of this study was selected from an urban public kindergarten in central China, referred to as Peony Kindergarten (anonymity preserved). The kindergarten adopts storytelling in the teaching activities and has completed a provincial project of Preschool Teachers Selected and Applied Stories to Guide Children’s Behaviour Development in Daily Activities. In this study, Peony Kindergarten created its their kindergarten-based curriculum, which includes subject curriculum and five domains curriculum. The subject curriculum is about storytelling, folk games and so on. In this study, I adopted the storytelling subject kindergarten-based curriculum of Peony Kindergarten. The purpose of this qualitative case study is to explore how preschool teachers use questioning strategies in storytelling classes to develop children’s CT skills. In this study, the purpose sampling was used, and 13 preschool teachers voluntarily participated in this study. At the kindergarten, they engaged in teaching and childcare for children aged 5 to 6 years old. To maintain the integrity of the study and protect teachers’ confidentiality, all preschool teachers’ names are replaced with numbers, such as Teacher 1, Teacher 2, etc. Two of the thirteen preschool teachers had a bachelor’s degree, while the other 11 had a college diploma.

In this study, the stories used by preschool teachers were selected from the kindergarten-based curriculum in this kindergarten. In China, the kindergarten curriculum is based on the developmental needs of children, with preschool teachers collaborating with the principal to construct the kindergarten-based curriculum. In this study, Peony Kindergarten developed a kindergarten-based curriculum based on subjects and five domains.

Data collection

The data collection occurred during the spring semester of 2023. At the end of February 2023, before the formal data collection, a meeting was held with the principal of the kindergarten and all preschool teachers participating in the research. During the meeting, the first author requested the preschool teachers who agreed to participate in the study to sign an informed consent form. Although the sample of this study is not children, it is inevitable to observe the interaction between children and teachers in the process of classroom observation. Therefore, the first author delegated the task to the preschool teacher to obtain the parents’ signatures on the informed consent.

In the process of data collection, classroom observations and interviews were conducted simultaneously. The researcher adhered to the principle that preschool teachers should not interviewed during holidays, and the interview times were only scheduled when teachers’ time was available. The classroom observation plan is based on the teaching plan for this semester.

The data for this qualitative case study were semi-structured interviews, classroom observation and document analysis. The data were documented in Chinese and translated back-to-back into English. In this study, face-to-face personal interviews were used to understand how preschool teachers employ questioning strategies in storytelling classes to develop children’s CT. The interview took about 30 minutes. In this study, the researcher was a direct observer or non-participant observer. Throughout the observation period, the researcher did not engage in or interfere with the preschool teachers’ teaching activity. Observations were made from a seat towards the rear of the classroom. This location had a clear view of the teacher’s interaction with children. In this study, document analysis includes the preschool teachers’ teaching activity designs and teaching reflections. These documents were in Microsoft Word format. These documents were obtained from preschool teachers after classroom observations were conducted. Finally, a total of 34 teaching activities design and teaching reflections were collected.

Data analysis

This study used thematic analysis methods for data analysis. Qualitative data analysis methods are very diverse, complex and subtle (Holloway and Todres 2003), and thematic analysis should be considered as the basis method for qualitative analysis. The research combined both inductive and deductive methods for coding and interpreting the data. By encoding data and data fragments, codes with comparable or similar meanings may generate categories through induction. The process of subsequently evaluating, validating and modifying categories and themes based on references and theory is deductive. According to Miles, Huberman, and Saldana (2014), the process of qualitative data analysis is coded at different stages in two cycles. In the process of coding, the code is continuously edited and altered until the categories or themes arise, and the data are regularly read and amended. In this study, analysing qualitative data was not a linear, step-by-step process but rather a continuous, iterative and cyclical process.

To ensure the credibility of the findings, inter-rater reliability was employed. An expert coder was identified to code some of the data. The expert possesses a profound expertise in qualitative research methods and has accumulated extensive practical experience in this field over the years. After the coding, the expert’s code was compared with my identified codes. The inter-rater reliability analysis showed a high level of consistency between the codes with a Cohen’s kappa coefficient of 0.82. As suggested by Landis and Koch (1977), Cohen’s kappa values between 0.81 and 1 are interpreted as almost complete agreement.

Findings and discussion

This study is based on six stages (remember, understand, apply, analyse, evaluate and create) in the cognitive domain of Bloom’s taxonomy as a process of CT development in children. Through data analysis, it is found that preschool teachers use different levels of questions in storytelling classes to develop children’s CT.

Remember

Remembering is the first stage in the cognitive development process in Bloom’s taxonomy. At this stage, it is mainly recalling previously learned knowledge or information (Krathwohl 2002). This study found that preschool teachers develop children’s thinking skills in the remembering stage by asking questions about the remembering stage.

Through the data analysis of classroom observation, it is found that in storytelling classes, preschool teachers ask the questions of remember level, so that the children can answer the questions by recalling the basic information of the story. Children need to remember the basic information and knowledge in the story when answering the questions. For example, Teacher 11 tells the story Rabbits Don’t Like Night. During the storytelling, the owl and the rabbit have different opinions about preferring the day and preferring the night. The bird appeared, and the bird’s point of view was that it liked the night. At this time, the teacher asked the children the question, who has the same view as the bird? The children collectively replied to the owl (T11O_Rabbits Don’t Like Night).

The 21^st Bloom’s Taxonomy Framework is a series of levels for developing and practicing CT skills. Remembering is the first stage of developing CT, and the process of CT cannot proceed without remembering (Zapalska et al. 2018). Although this stage belongs to low-order thinking, the development of CT is a process from simple to complex. This study found that in storytelling classes, preschool teachers could follow the stages of children’s CT development and did not ignore the training of children’s low-order thinking. In kindergarten classrooms, preschool teachers’ questions cannot only attract children’s interest but also guide them to think independently and cultivate their thinking ability (Zheng 2018). Each stage in Bloom’s taxonomy is important, and preschool teachers need effective guidance to promote the development of children’s CT. Therefore, in the storytelling class, preschool teachers pay attention to the cultivation of children’s ability in the remembering stage which is very important for the development of children’s CT.

Understand

Understanding is the second stage in the cognitive development process in Bloom’s taxonomy. Understanding means comprehending the meaning, interpreting instructions and questions, and explaining an idea or concept in one’s own words (Krathwohl 2002).

Through data analysis, it is found that in the storytelling class, preschool teachers raise the question of understanding level and develop the ability of understanding stage in the cognitive development of children. For example, Teacher 4 chose the story Recalcitrant Tortoise. The purpose of this story is to develop children’s ability of observation, imagination and thinking and make them feel the tortoise’s spirit of perseverance towards the goal. After the storytelling, the teacher asks questions about the tortoise that kept walking day and night, did it attend the wedding finally? One boy said that Taotao did not attend the wedding because he was originally attending the wedding of the King Lion 28th, and now the weddings are held by the King Lion 29th. Then, another boy said Taotao participated in the wedding because it did not matter if it was King Lion 28th or King Lion 29th, they were all King Lion. Hence, he went to the wedding (T4O_Recalcitrant Tortoise). For questions at the understanding level, children can only answer after recalling and comprehending the information they have heard.

In the interview, preschool teachers pay more attention to the types of questions asked by teachers in class. They all agree that more open-ended questions should be asked so that children can express their views and ideas through thinking, understanding, generalization and paraphrasing. For example, Teacher 8 said that teachers’ questioning skills are a challenge for every teacher because they are not professionally trained. It is common in teaching practice to find that teachers’ questions in classes are not effective, and most teachers use closed questions. Children’s thinking development is not improved by answering these closed questions (T8I_22.4.2023). It can be found from interviews that preschool teachers also understand that the types of questions teachers ask are directly related to the development of children’s thinking.

One interesting finding is that in storytelling classes, preschool teachers do not neglect to develop lower-level cognitive abilities in children. The development of CT is a process in which children learn to ask appropriate questions from understanding basic questions to identifying or recalling key information. In storytelling classes, meaningful and understandable stories improve the ability of children to ask questions, analyse stories and create stories (Benjelloun and El Kirat El Allame 2019). However, children’s reading ability is relatively weak because of their thinking and language ability characteristics (Zhou 2009). Therefore, preschool teachers need to devote more energy to the development of children’s abilities at understanding stage. Children must have a sufficient understanding of knowledge or information to achieve success throughout the learning process, which is why the understanding stage is critical in the development of CT.

Apply

Applying is the third stage of cognitive development in Bloom’s taxonomy. Applying is defined as the use of existing knowledge or information to answer questions or solve problems in new situations (Krathwohl 2002). Through data analysis, it is found that preschool teachers in storytelling classrooms can put forward the questions at the application level to develop children’s CT.

In storytelling classes, early childhood teachers ask applying-level questions, and children remember the contents and themes of the stories they listen to, and have a good understanding of the knowledge and information in the stories. For example, Teacher 3 chose the story Mrs. Goose Takes a Bath. The purpose of this story is to make children develop the good habit of doing things in an orderly way. After the storytelling, the teachers asked the children that Mrs. Goose always forgot something when she was taking a bath. Can they help her take a bath in an orderly way? Then, some children said that the order of bathing can be painted on the wall or paper … (T3O_Mrs. Goose Takes a Bath).

This study found that the questions asked by preschool teachers in storytelling classes are closely related to real life. Children in this grade are faced with entering primary school after a few months. Preschool teachers connect the plot of the story with children’s real life and help them prepare for primary school.

In storytelling classes, when faced with answering questions at the applying-level, children need to apply existing knowledge or information to new situations and use knowledge of memory and understanding to solve problems. That is to say, children would apply the knowledge and skills learned before to a new situation or their life practice. However, in the process of CT development, the ability at the application level is to allow children to apply existing knowledge to practical problems, which is difficult for most children. Therefore, teachers use these level questions to help children develop their abilities at the applied level.

Analyse

Analysing is the fourth stage of cognitive development in Bloom’s taxonomy. The analysis is at a cognitive level, and this stage belongs to higher-order thinking or CT (Anderson et al. 2001). In Bloom’s taxonomy, children must apply existing knowledge to develop complex cognitive activities through association, discrimination and comparison. Through data analysis in this study, it was found that in storytelling classrooms, preschool teachers can ask analyse-level questions to develop children’s CT.

Children must engage in analyse-level questions, which are more complex than the stages of understanding and applying. Through classroom observation, it has been found that most preschool teachers in storytelling classes can ask analyse-level questions based on story plots. For example, Teacher 5 tells the story of Recalcitrant Tortoise, and at the beginning of the story, she tells the conversation between the two pigeons in the forest about the wedding of the King Lion 28th. When the tortoise heard two pigeons’ conversation, it fell into deep thought. The tortoise thought from day to night and thought for a long time. The teacher asked, what is the turtle thinking? Why did he think about it all night long? (T5O_Stubborn Tortoise).

The questions at the analysis level asked by preschool teachers in storytelling classes can be observed not only in classroom observation but also in the design of teachers’ teaching activities. For example, Teacher 11 tells stories about Rabbits Don’t Like Night to help children understand the natural laws of day and night. After the storytelling, she designed the questions at the analytical level, for example, why don’t rabbit like the night? Why do Owls like the night (T11D_Rabbits Don’t Like Night)？

In the domain of cognition in Bloom’s taxonomy, the analysis stage belongs to high-order thinking, which is CT. Preschool teachers can lead to individual responses, perspectives and ideas by asking questions and demonstrating creative activities using knowledge and information that children already know. Preschool teachers ask questions at the analysis stage that allow children to thoroughly analyse, understand and use this knowledge to defend their views. In particular, teachers ask children to explain their ideas further when they express their views or ideas. In such cases, children must provide reasonable reasons to prove their views or why they think so. In this process, children are developed in CT, such as evaluation and creation. By using persuasive teaching practices, students can overcome misunderstandings and practice and develop CT skills (Chinn, Anderson, and Waggoner 2001).

Evaluate

Evaluating is the fifth level of Bloom’s taxonomy, a higher level of thinking (Anderson et al. 2001). The definition of evaluating is the judgment of ideas or materials based on criteria and standards (Krathwohl 2002). At this stage, children begin to evaluate the events or characters in the story, give their opinions and defend them. Through data analysis, it has been found that in storytelling classes, preschool teachers ask evaluating-level questions to develop children’s CT skills.

The preschool teachers explained that questioning is an effective strategy to develop children’s CT, but they only explained to ask children more open-ended questions. This is particularly apparent in the data from interviews and documents. For example, in the semi-structured interviews, Teacher 4 suggested that when children encounter problems in kindergarten, they should not simply be asked to evaluate the rights and wrongs of the questions. The teacher should ask questions at the evaluation level. Children respond to these questions by putting themselves in the situation and expressing their views (T4I_7.4.2023). Additionally, Teacher 12 noted that in the class, teachers have to ask evaluative questions that meet the age characteristics of children aged 5 to 6 (T12I_24.5.2023). Therefore, she suggested that in storytelling classes, it is possible to put forward the evaluation type of questions. Similarly, these questions can promote the development of children’s thinking.

Through the data analysis of observation, it was found that preschool teachers would ask evaluation questions in class to develop children’s CT skills. For example, Teacher 3 and Teacher 10 both chose the story Fat Stone. After the storytelling, Teacher 3 asked the children what role Pangpang played. The children said the big stone loudly. Then, she went on to ask a further question, ‘Do you think Pangpang’s role as a big rock is perfect? Why?’ A girl said she thought Pangpang was very brave during the performance. A boy directly expressed that he believed Pangpang to be powerful, hence he did not move when the flower fairy sat on the stone. According to the second boy, Pangpang is very good because children enjoy playing leading roles, but he plays the part that no one else is interested in. The second girl said that she felt he was very much involved in performing the big stone because he did not feel too heavy when the flower fairy was lying on top of him and continued to perform (T3O_Fat Stone). It can also be seen from the expression of children that they did not use the original words in the story, but all use their own words to evaluate.

It has been proven by research that teachers’ questions promote the development of children’s CT. These questions are used by teachers to stimulate children’s thinking, test their understanding of knowledge and promote reflection, analysis or questioning (Fisher 2005). In storytelling classes, children need to think, analyse and compare the evaluation questions asked by preschool teachers. In this process, children can also listen to the different viewpoints of their peers. At the same time, it can also stimulate them to think about their views and make them understand the situation where they have different views in the face of problems. This was also confirmed by Tay-Lim (2011) that teachers can effectively expand children’s thinking by using open questions and reflective discourse in class. The teacher–student dialogue itself is a potential teaching tool that can promote the thinking ability of children.

Create

Creating is the highest stage of Bloom’s taxonomy. The definition of creating is to produce new or original work (Krathwohl 2002). At this stage, children are required to remember, understand and apply knowledge and information, analyse and evaluate results and processes, and then produce new physical products. Data analysis shows that in storytelling classes preschool teachers develop children’s the highest-level skills were asking children to make creative statements, that is, to create or edit a story based on the plot of the story.

In semi-structured interviews, many preschool teachers emphasized that in the storytelling class, children should create stories, predict story development and edit the stories. These strategies can develop children’s CT. For example, Teacher 13 suggested that children should create stories in the storytelling class or put the stories in regional activities for children to express themselves in other ways, which is helpful for the development of children’s CT (Interview_5/2023). Similarly, Teacher 2 also stressed that in the storytelling class, sometimes teachers should not rush to provide children with the result of the story but need to let children create their works through the way of creating stories. Following the presentation of their stories by the children, they were tasked with discussing and commenting on their peers’ works (Interview_3/2023).

In storytelling classes, preschool teachers encouraged children to create stories to develop their abilities in the creative stage. For example, encourage children to do things with integrity and avoid bad habits of forgetting things. Teacher 2 chose the story Half Mr. and Half Mrs., she asked the children, Half Mr. and Half Mrs. do things always do half, do you think their life can be happy? The children all said that they couldn’t be happy. Then, the teacher said，

at this point in the story, I have no idea, and I do not know how to tell it. I want you to help me create stories …. (T2O_ Half Mr. and Half Mrs.)

The teacher asked a boy to answer that Half Mr. wearing only a trouser leg of the pants out, just out, blew a gust of wind. His legs felt very cold, and then he ran home. The teacher asked a girl to answer that

The Half Mr. puts on their trousers and found only one leg. He started arguing with Half Mrs. He said to Half Mrs. how you always do half the work. The Half Mrs. also said to him that you do things halfway? Do you still criticize me? And, so, they quarrelled. Suddenly, an old woman saw them and said to them, you are both doing only half the work, how can this be done? All of you need to be corrected. (T2O_ Half Mr. and Half Mrs.)

The teacher also asked two other children to express their stories (T2O_Half Mr. and Half Mrs.). In the lesson, the teacher pretends that she does not have any ideas about the stories they tell so that children are motivated to make up their own stories. Through the task, children use their imagination and combine it with their existing knowledge and experience to create their own stories.

In summary, CT requires not only individuals to recollect information from class but also high-level questions to think, reason, analyse and evaluate. At the same time, given the age characteristics of 5- to 6-year-old children and the limited knowledge experience available, preschool teachers do not ignore developing the ability of children to think critically at the lower levels (remember, understand and apply). Preschool teachers are aware that effective questioning is a significant way to foster children’s CT. The findings are in line with Elder and Paul (2019) suggested that teachers should utilize Socratic questioning to improve children’s CT process, and conversational discussions will occur naturally. By asking questions that are beyond children’s existing knowledge, allow them to answer through thinking, comparison and analysis.

Preschool teachers were able to develop children’s CT by using different levels of questions in the storytelling class, according to this study. Preschool teachers often ask open-ended questions in the classroom. This is consistent with the findings of Harrop and Swinson (2013), who found that in kindergarten, teachers asked no fewer closed-ended questions in the classroom than in post-school education. At the same time, the level of questions asked by preschool teachers is to range from lower to higher in this study. Especially regarding the three highest-level questions (analysis, evaluation and creation), preschool teachers put forward corresponding questions based on the content of the story combined with the real life of children. This finding just as Fisher (2005) proposed that the reason why teachers ask questions in the classroom is that teachers use these questions to stimulate children’s thinking, test their understanding of knowledge and promote their reflection, analysis or questioning. Therefore, preschool teachers raise different levels of questions during the storytelling class, which directly affects the development and cultivation of children’s CT.

Conclusion

Questioning is one of the most commonly used teaching tools for teachers in their teaching activities. Preschool teachers enhance the abilities of children at different stages of CT by asking questions at different levels. However, this does not imply that it is effective for preschool teachers to ask more high-level questions in a storytelling classroom. As Omari (2018) suggests the teachers use low and high levels of questions in the classroom so that children are exposed to the thinking skills needed at all levels for effective learning. Additionally, just as Tian, Wang, and Qiu (2018) proposed that teachers should possess a good CT spirit. In class, the teacher should work with the students to keep questions challenging but not impossible to answer.

We discuss the implications for the teaching activities of preschool teachers. In teaching activities, preschool teachers should be good at grasping generating questions and communicating with children. Similarly, preschool teachers should recognize that the ideological development of children is influenced by the different types of questions raised in the classroom in different ways. The development of children’s imagination and thinking abilities can limit by closed questions, which are low-level problems that do not improve their language skills. Children must use their existing knowledge to come up with new solutions for high-level problems through thinking and analysis. Open questions that do not have a single standard answer are used to expand children’s thinking and develop their thinking skills in high-level questions.

This study broadens the understanding of using the revised Bloom’s taxonomy as a reference for generating questions. The findings also highlighted the practice of teachers to encourage children to answer questions. In the same way, the study noted the need to strengthen teacher practice and raise different types of questions regarding the revised Bloom’s taxonomy. The study also implied the need for preschool teachers to develop the capacity of teachers to adopt sociocultural perspectives in storytelling and questioning to link learning to the daily lives of children.

There are still some limitations in this study. The small sample size. The transferability of the results of this study may be limited by the small sample. Another limitation is the participants’ awareness of being studied. Their behaviour in the study could have been influenced by this. The teachers’ daily teaching behaviours’ may have been influenced by knowing they were being observed or recorded during the data collection process. The suggestion for further research is to utilize experimental methods to evaluate the effectiveness of teachers’ questioning strategy in developing CT in children.

Credit author statement

Zhi Ying Liu: conceptualization, methodology, data collection & analysis, writing-original draft, writing-review & editing.

Sook Jhee Yoon: conceptualization, methodology, data analysis, writing-review & editing, supervision.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the deans of the kindergartens involved in the implementation of this study, who gave me guidance and opportunities to learn and practice. I would like to thank the kindergarten teachers who participated in this study for their warm cooperation and support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Institute of Educational Sciences of Fujian Province under Grant [number: FJJKBK21-098].