The Best Critical Thinking Prompts for Your Inquisitive Learners' Projects

Life is very simple, Einstein said once, but the problem is that we insist on complicating it. The same can often be said about learning. However, learning doesn't have to be complicated but it does have to be engaging. 

All you need to do is begin with creative critical thinking prompts like these, and watch your learners take the lead. 

The following list comes from the article 42 Fill-In-The-Blank Prompts For Students To Design Their Own Projects by Terry Heick.

According to Terry, who published these prompts on TeachThought, they have multiple uses. Everything from lesson planning to project building to sparking lively discussions can happen with them. Your learners will enjoy the challenges as you present them with the unlimited possibilities for using them in the classroom.

42 Critical Thinking Prompts for Learners

1. Clarify…
2. Stylize…without changing…
3. Illuminate…
4. Solve….together with….
5. Rethink….by…
6. Learn to….with…
7. Repackage…for…
8. Identify what’s implied in…
9. Design a ….using…
10. Make a…with…
11. Find the best evidence that supports…
12. Find a better/smarter/faster/safer way to…
13. Simplify….for….
14. Explain how others misunderstand…
15. Narrate the sequence of…
16. Change…’s mind about…
17. Socialize your opinion on…through…and refine or clarify it based on feedback. (e.g., quora, reddit, twitter)
18. Explain the significance of….by….
19. Contextualize the history of….
20. Explore and curate the history of…
21. Document…for the purpose of…
22. Document how…was able to…
23. Digitize…so that….
24. Find another way to solve…
25. Turn the problem of…into a manageable project
26. Practice…until you can…
27. Honor the complexity of…by…
28. Debate the merit of…compared to…
29. Collaborate with…in order to…
30. Restore…
31. Identify and elegantly demonstrate the sources of…
32. Support…by…
33. Play with…using…
34. Find the patterns in…
35. Analyze…through a series of questions.
36. Identify analogous situations compared to…
37. Iterate…in light of…
38. Untangle the causes from the effects of…
39. Contrast…and…
40. See…from the perspective of…
41. Merge the thinking of…and…
42. Theorize what…would say about…