Self-questioning
Self-questioning is about taking stock of your knowledge after reading a text in your course, i.e. whether the questions you formulated at the outset enabled you to find complete answers in the text you read. At this stage, self-questioning also allows you to check, after reading a text, whether it has allowed you to meet the goal you had set at the beginning, i.e. whether you have achieved your reading intention.
Advantages
Ensures that you get the most out of your reading for learning, preparing for exams or writing assignments.
To get started
Questions to ask yourself :
- What was my initial intention? What do I need to learn from this text?
- Was I able to achieve it with the reading I did?
- What are the key concepts found in the text?
- Did the reading help me answer the questions I had before or during the reading?
- What do I remember from the text? What have I learned that is new?
- Which aspects of the text are less clear to me and are important to understand for the preparation of assignments and exams?
Exercise
Barbeau et al.(1997).
Within 24 hours after reading, take a few minutes to write questions in the margin that are answered by the information you have read or summarised.
Systematically ask yourself if the reading intention you set before reading the text has been achieved.
Read again the learning objectives at the beginning of the chapters in your textbook and ask yourself if you are able to describe, explain, define the contents and concepts that are being discussed. If you are not, then the objective you were supposed to achieve in the chapter is not. Repeat the reading in relation to the learning that has not been achieved.
Exercising critical thinking skills
Les études universitaires vous amènent à lire plusieurs types de textes : articles de recherche, rapports, analyses, etc. Vos enseignants s’attendront de vous non seulement à ce que vous soyez en mesure de comprendre et de vous rappeler du contenu, ils s’attendront également à ce que vous deveniez un lecteur critique qui évalue et qui interprète avec discernement. Plus précisément, les enseignants s’attendront à ce que vous soyez en mesure (McWhorter, 1994) :
- learn about an author's qualifications in his field of expertise;
- distinguish fact from opinion;
- understand an author's intention;
- to examine an author statements, argumentation and the way in which he articulates his thoughts to support his statements;
- see if the author is influenced by any bias;
- find out where the information comes from.
In order to meet these requirements, it is necessary to practice a type of active reading, to keep notes and to be able to evaluate and compare several texts with each other.
This ability to critically judge the credibility and relevance of arguments that support an author's point of view is necessary, given the mass of information to which you are exposed. One of the purposes of your education is to be able to criticise knowledge before using it. Therefore, it requires you to be able to spot the flaws in a hypothesis, a theory, an expert's opinion in his argument, judging the relevance of these, as an example.
Advantages
Avoids misinterpretation and misunderstanding (Ruph, 2010).
To get started
Questions to ask yourself :
- Is it easy to find out the author's qualifications in his field of expertise?
- Do the experts really know their subject?
- Have the author(s) written other texts? Are they active in their field? Are they cited in other texts?
- Compared to other experts, is the viewpoint presented correct and complete?
- What are the differences with other experts in field X?
- Are you able to demonstrate that an expert is wrong?
- What are the author's biases?
- What are the facts? What are the opinions, value judgements?
- Are the hypotheses supported by observations, analyses, other authors?
- To what extent can you prove that the author is right?
- What was the author's goal in writing the text?
- Did he achieve this goal? Did he do it effectively?
- Has the author ignored any important elements?
- How does this reading contribute to the course content?
- What are the merits and limitations of the text?
To compare different authors, here are the elements of the text to which you should pay particular attention (McWorter, 1994):
- The author's position (the author's point of view in relation to the content of his paper) or in relation to the ideas of others;
- The arguments that support the position, the way they are articulated and the quality of the arguments;
- The degree of the author's bias;
- The author's authority or credibility in his field;
- The common points between the authors;
- The points of difference between the authors;
- Style, etc.
Exercise :
If you are comparing two authors, you can do so in a table format (see "comparison" process).