The Effect of Socratic Questioning in Enhancing Cognitive Curiosity and Historical Empathy in University Students

This study examined the effect of Socratic questioning on enhancing cognitive curiosity and historical empathy among university students in History education programs. The study involved 60 third-year male undergraduate students from Al-Azhar University, Faculty of Education in Tafahna Al-Ashraf, assigned to experimental (n=30) and control (n=30) groups using intact classes, with an additional validation sample of 297 students used for psychometric testing. A pretest-posttest control-group design was employed over 12 weeks, during which the experimental group received Socratic questioning instruction focused on Egyptian historical contexts. In contrast, the control group received traditional lecture-based instruction. Data were collected using the Historical Empathy Scale-Adult Form and the Epistemic Curiosity Scale, and analyzed using a repeated-measures ANOVA in SPSS 27 with post hoc pairwise comparisons and the Bonferroni adjustment. Results revealed significant improvements in the experimental group across all measures, with large effect sizes for total historical empathy (?²p = .426) and total epistemic curiosity (?²p = .361), while behavioral empathy showed the strongest improvement (?²p = .288). Benefits were maintained at follow-up assessment, indicating lasting effects of the intervention. The findings recommend that educational institutions integrate Socratic questioning techniques in history curricula and provide faculty development programs focusing on inquiry-based pedagogical approaches. Received: 28 October 2025 / Accepted: 18 December 2025 / Published: January 2026