As teachers, but also when we need to explain anything to anyone, we are interested in approaching topics in a simple and direct manner. Dialogue is a valuable tool not only for teaching, but also for inquiry, discovery, and dialogue.
We call Socratic maieutics the method by which the teacher, through questions, helps the student discover ideas that were latent within him. Dialogue and discovery are key to learning in any context.
By implementing the question-and-answer technique in the classroom, students can connect, contrast, and critique their own ideas, as well as participate more actively in class. How can we encourage its use inside and outside the classroom?
In this sense, it’s interesting to observe how generative artificial intelligence tools have restored the importance of knowing how to ask, ask again, and connect, since the commands or prompts we use to work with them are often just that: questions.
The curious thing about commands is that we can obtain important differences in the answers we get from the machine depending on subtle differences in the formulation of our question .
Commands and challenges
Crafting effective commands can be a challenge, especially if we’re looking for high-quality responses. It’s not so much a matter of the chatbots ‘ limitations , but rather how much time we’ve invested in thinking about a topic and what we want to continue learning.
For this reason, it may be interesting to take advantage of the moment we use artificial intelligence to consider how to motivate students to reflect on these questions, and how the questions themselves provide teachers with important information about who their learners are and what their interests, beliefs, or needs are.
Reflect on how we ask
Among the main challenges for teachers when introducing chatbots inside and outside the classroom is being able to offer learners insights into how they ask their questions .
That is, we know that students frequently use chatbots . The key is to invite them to reflect on this action and encourage them to think about what they did. How did they do it? What kinds of questions did they ask? Did they use lower- or higher-order cognitive processes ?
For example, following the RITA model (Role and Context-Information-Task-Adaptability), we can imagine the following command:
You are a professor-researcher at a prestigious university and you will assist a student in consulting sources on the topic: “Academic Writing for Higher Education Students” (Here we establish the role and context). The central question is: How do you locate up-to-date and reliable information on academic writing for Education students using the Research Rabbit tool ? (Information). To do so, write a text with the detailed steps to follow in the Research Rabbit review, in order to locate current and relevant texts on the topic (Task). Additionally, indicate a methodology that allows for a better understanding of the topic and provide some practical recommendations for the student (Adaptability).
If we compare the answers between different artificial intelligence tools ( Gemini , Perplexity , DeepSeek, and ChatGPT ), we can see that the former focuses on a sourceless methodology, while the latter offers at least three sources. DeepSeek separates the guidance for locating information and offers a methodology for improving understanding. Finally, ChatGPT offers more explanations and is not as direct.
In the above comparison, we can identify the degrees of accuracy, biases, and perspectives among chatbot responses to the same command or prompt . The more matches we find, the more confident we can be in the response given.
What the questions tell us about the students
Discussing how we ask questions to elicit appropriate answers can help teachers get to know our students. It’s a way to learn about their thinking and what their curiosities, beliefs, behaviors, and doubts are, in order to later understand their questions and horizons of interpretation.
By listening empathetically to our students, it’s possible to identify recurring types of questions. If this is the case, then we must review our explanations and the ways we express them. Furthermore, creating space for questions requires trust and respect. It encourages students to “dare to verbalize in public” their levels of understanding on a topic.
A teacher can encourage continued questioning, open dialogue, and interaction with peers: “Why do you think this question arises?” or “What arguments are you considering in your approach?” That’s precisely what it’s all about: creating learning communities.
The questions don’t end in the classroom
Finally, we can use questions or prompts to consult and review teaching and assessment strategies. For example, we can ask the machine itself for help constructing commands:
Act as an evaluator and review the previously submitted prompt . What improvements should be considered?
Although there are various models for conducting this questioning work, including RITA, it is important to emphasize that question formulation should not follow a rigid structure. It is not simply about mechanically applying a methodology, but rather about fostering the ability to think critically and create autonomously. In this sense, the key lies in keeping students motivated, encouraging them to question, explore, and formulate meaningful questions.
Author Bio: Claritza Arlenet Peña Zerpa is Professor-Researcher at CIIDEA-UCAB. Undergraduate and graduate professor at Andrés Bello Catholic University.
Mixzaida Yelitza Peña Zerpa, a member of the Famicine Foundation and the Ibero-American Network of Audiovisual Narratives, also contributed to this article.
