Which strategy is least likely to aid in developing students' critical thinking skills?

Memorization tasks primarily focus on rote learning, where students are required to remember and recall information without necessarily understanding its meaning or implications. This approach does not cultivate the analytical or evaluative skills that are essential for critical thinking. In contrast, strategies such as integrating debates, group collaborations, and Socratic questioning actively engage students in processes that demand analysis, evaluation, and synthesis of ideas.

Debates encourage students to articulate and defend their viewpoints, requiring them to think critically about their arguments and anticipate counterarguments. Group collaborations foster discussion, encouraging students to consider multiple perspectives, which enhances their ability to think critically. Socratic questioning challenges students to explore the depths of their understanding, prompting them to evaluate evidence and reasoning comprehensively. Each of these strategies promotes critical thinking by requiring active engagement and deeper cognitive processing, which is not achieved through memorization.