Socrates and the Socratic Method
Socrates never wrote anything. His student, Plato, wrote a number of documents on his teacher.
Basically, Socrates was a master of questioning. He essentially debated the great teachers and thinkers of his time; through the use of questions, he would demonstrate the contradictions in their arguments.
He was also known to help his opponent with a way out of their situation so as not to cause embarassment. He tried to get to the first cause of things. He wanted someone to define what something was before he let them try to apply or judge it.
By the way, the Bloom's Taxonomy used in this course is obsolete. It was corrected by a group of educational psychologists led by his former student. See: Bloom's Revised Taxonomy.
David Leon Cooper, MS (Ed Adm)
If I have a smaller class I will have them sit in a circle and discuss a topic sometimes. I will usually observe and encourage them to use their critical thinking skills.
HI Harris- Thanks for your post to the forum. Yes, Encoraging students to think critically enables them to be more invested in their own learning. Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
This method helps the student to often times formulate there own conclusing about why should they know the information in the first place which takes a load off of me.
When trying to help my automotive students understand a particular concept, besides using various questioning techniques, I like to take situations from everyday life and use them to illustrate the similarities of the known concept to the unknown concept.
Although I find that the Socratic Method does develop thinking among the students, I am concerned about exclusive use of Socratic Method. It is important to incorporate instruction for the students. Further, there are times when the student wants to hear the answer from the instructor - they need to be assured that they are thinking on the right track.
Hi Lisa - How cool to pass that on to your students!! Susan
I like the Socratic Method a lot because it challenges students to examine beliefs and attitudes they have never thought about, so-called 'received' beliefs. I get a real kick out of the 'aha!' look they get when they realize something they've never thought of before. While sometimes the Socratic Method is hard to get started, I find that students return to it on their own in subsequent discussions as a result of the fun they had with it in previous classes.
