The Effectiveness of the Guided Self-Questioning Strategy in Developing Reflective Thinking Skills among Learners

The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of employing the guided self-questioning strategy in enhancing reflective thinking abilities, specifically: observation and reflection, error detection, drawing conclusions, providing convincing interpretations, and proposing viable solutions among learners. A quasi-experimental design was adopted, involving two groups (experimental and control) with pre-test and post-test measurements. The sample comprised (60) first-grade intermediate students from Al-Turath Intermediate School for Boys, under the Ashur Education Directorate in Salah al-Din Governorate. Participants were randomly assigned into two equal groups (30 each) studying chemistry. The researcher developed a reflective thinking skills test and a teacher’s guide for implementing the guided self-questioning strategy. Findings revealed statistically significant differences at the significance level (α ≤ 0.05) between the mean scores of the experimental and control groups on the post-test of reflective thinking skills, favouring the experimental group. The effect size, calculated using Black’s Adjusted Gain Equation , was (1.22), indicating a very large effectiveness of the strategy. These results align with previous studies  that confirmed the positive impact of self-questioning on higher-order thinking skills.