I think asking learners questions can help them develop their thinking skills better.
Of-course, care has to be taken that the questions aren’t too simplistic for learners to find it boring / easy or too difficult to put them off.
Putting learners in different / relevant groups (as per learning objective) is also important.
These details are a part of the lesson plan – thereby, it does merit the effort from educators to alter and reframe the lesson plan to improve thinking skills of learners. It helps if the educator thinks of different points of interest / contexts relevant to the topic.
I tend to ask questions from different contexts (Business Studies & GP), which intrigues the learners and piques their curiosity. This also helps to break the monotony of class / lessons and helps the learners get a different experience rather than the status quo. Mostly, once the learners get the drift, they participate better and gradually also become more confident.
