The document discusses the Socratic method of teaching. It defines the Socratic method as using questioning to examine students' values, principles, and beliefs, rather than lecturing. The key components are:
1) Using questions to explore students' moral intuitions and how they live their lives, rather than facts.
2) Focusing on moral education and how students ought to live, potentially refuting their beliefs and values.
3) Creating productive discomfort through real tension among participants where high stakes questions are asked.
The Socratic professor participates in dialogue rather than possessing all knowledge, and aims to learn through questions rather than assert authority.
The document discusses the Socratic method of teaching. It defines the Socratic method as using questioning to examine students' values, principles, and beliefs, rather than lecturing. The key components are:
1) Using questions to explore students' moral intuitions and how they live their lives, rather than facts.
2) Focusing on moral education and how students ought to live, potentially refuting their beliefs and values.
3) Creating productive discomfort through real tension among participants where high stakes questions are asked.
The Socratic professor participates in dialogue rather than possessing all knowledge, and aims to learn through questions rather than assert authority.
The document discusses the Socratic method of teaching. It defines the Socratic method as using questioning to examine students' values, principles, and beliefs, rather than lecturing. The key components are:
1) Using questions to explore students' moral intuitions and how they live their lives, rather than facts.
2) Focusing on moral education and how students ought to live, potentially refuting their beliefs and values.
3) Creating productive discomfort through real tension among participants where high stakes questions are asked.
The Socratic professor participates in dialogue rather than possessing all knowledge, and aims to learn through questions rather than assert authority.
The document discusses the Socratic method of teaching. It defines the Socratic method as using questioning to examine students' values, principles, and beliefs, rather than lecturing. The key components are:
1) Using questions to explore students' moral intuitions and how they live their lives, rather than facts.
2) Focusing on moral education and how students ought to live, potentially refuting their beliefs and values.
3) Creating productive discomfort through real tension among participants where high stakes questions are asked.
The Socratic professor participates in dialogue rather than possessing all knowledge, and aims to learn through questions rather than assert authority.
What it is and How to Use it in the Classroom Political Science professor Rob Reich, recipient of expect, is the Socratic teacher the guide on the the 2001 Walter J. Gores Award for Teaching Excel- side. lence, delivered a talk on May 22, 2003 as part of the In the Socratic method, the classroom experience Center for Teaching and Learnings Award Winning is a shared dialogue between teacher and students in Teachers on Teaching lecture series. In his talk, which both are responsible for pushing the dialogue Professor Reich discussed the Socratic method of forward through questioning. The teacher, or teachinga method which has encountered some leader of the dialogue, asks probing questions in an criticism in recent decades but is also acknowledged effort to expose the values and beliefs which frame as the foundation of Western pedagogical tradition. and support the thoughts and statements of the Professor Reich encouraged the audience to cre- participants in the inquiry. The students ask ques- atively reclaim the Socratic method as a relevant tions as well, both of the teacher and each other. framework for actively engaging students with the The inquiry progresses interactively, and the critical thinking process. teacher is as much a participant as a guide of the This issue of Speaking of Teaching is devoted to discussion. Furthermore, the inquiry is open-ended. the Socratic method, and reproduces the substance of There is no pre-determined argument or terminus to Professor Reichs talk on the subject. After a brief which the teacher attempts to lead the students. introduction in which Reich defines what the Those who practice the Socratic method do not use Socratic method is (and what it is often mistaken PowerPoint slides. Without a lesson plan, the group for), he helpfully breaks down the method into follows the dialogue where it goes. specific components, and then offers tips for how to (continued on page 2) use it in the classroom. He also offers an excellent model of the Socratic method in practice. As with most of the other talks in the Award TA Orientation Winning Teachers on Teaching series, a videotape of Winter Quarter 2004 Professor Reichs talk is available for viewing in the video library at the Center for Teaching and Learn- Thursday, January 8 ing, on the fourth floor of Sweet Hall. 1:15-4:05 pm What is the Socratic Method? Landau Economics Building Socratic inquiry is emphatically not teaching in Conference Room A the conventional sense of the word. The leader of Socratic inquiry is not the purveyor of knowledge, No registration necessary! filling the empty minds of largely passive students Refreshments will be served with facts and truths acquired through years of study. As the people in the School of Education would say, For more information, contact: the Socratic teacher is not the sage on the stage. TeachingCenter@stanford.edu In the Socratic method, there are no lectures and no need of rote memorization. But neither, as you might Speaking of Teaching Fall 2003 produced quarterly by the Center for Teaching and Learning The Socratic Method Essential components of the Socratic method Refutation of ones beliefs about how best to live delivers an implicit verdict that, to para- 1. The Socratic method uses questions to examine phrase Rilkes poem, The Archaic Torso of the values, principles, and beliefs of students. Apollo (1908), you must change your life. Socrates is famous for saying the unexamined Through questioning, the participants strive first to life is not worth living. Equally true, though identify and then to defend their moral intuitions less appreciated, is the fact that the unlived life about the world which undergird their ways of life. is not worth examining. Socratic inquiry deals not with producing a recita- tion of facts, or a questioning of the logic of various 3. The Socratic method demands a classroom and sundry abstractions which are held up for environment characterized by productive comparison, but demands rather that the participants discomfort. account for themselves, their thoughts, actions, and beliefs. Socratic inquiry aims to reveal the motiva- In the best of Socratic dialogues, there is real tions and assumptions upon which students lead tension among the interlocutors. The stakes are their lives. Thus, practitioners of the Socratic high. Will one be called on, be called to ac- method may want students to know facts, but they count? want to focus more on what the student thinks about these facts, not what others think! Its no use citing 4. The Socratic method is better used to demon- authorities. strate complexity, difficulty, and uncertainty than at eliciting facts about the world. 2. The Socratic method focuses on moral educa- tion, on how one ought to live. Bertrand Russell once wrote, As usual in philosophy, the first difficulty is to see that the Socratic inquiry necessarily proceeds in an ad problem is difficult. If you say to a person hominem style. That is, rather than making argu- untrained in philosophy, How do you know I ments or asking questions designed to convince any have two eyes? he or she will reply, What a or all people, all comments in a Socratic inquiry are silly question! I can see you have. It is not to directed at specific participants in the discussion. be supposed that, when our inquiry is finished, The subject of inquiry is not what is thought or said we shall have arrived at anything radically about the world in general, but what each participant different from this un-philosophical position. thinks or says about the world. The goal is not to What will have happened will be that we shall consider depersonalized propositions and abstrac- have come to see a complicated structure where tions, but to probe the underlying values and beliefs we thought everything was simple, that we shall of each inquirer. have become aware of the penumbra of uncer- Since the substance of Socratic inquiry is the tainty surrounding the situations which inspire belief and value system of the participants, when no doubt, that we shall find doubt more fre- those beliefs or values are challenged, or refuted, it quently justified than we supposed, and that is nothing less than the coherence of the lives of the even the most plausible premises will have people that is at stake. As Socrates says often in shown themselves capable of yielding implau- Platos dialogues, he is primarily concerned with sible conclusions. The net result is to substitute how one ought to live. In Platos Gorgias, Socrates articulate hesitation for inarticulate certainty. says, Do not take what I say as if I were merely playing, for you see the subject of our discussion The Socratic Professor and on what subject should even a man of slight intelligence be more serious?namely, what kind In the Socratic method, the Socratic professor is of life should one live . . . not the opponent in an argument, nor is he or (continued on page 3) Page 2 Speaking of Teaching Fall 2003 The Socratic Method she someone who always plays devils advocate, 4. Above all else, use follow-up questions! Get saying essentially: If you affirm it, I deny it. If students to account for themselves, not just to you deny it, I affirm it. This happens sometimes, regurgitate readings and lectures. but not as a matter of pedagogical principle. Neither does the Socratic professor possess all 5. Always be open to learning something new. the knowledge or the answers, nor is he or she Dont be a sage on the stage, or a guide on the side. just testing the students. The professor is a Be willing to say, I dont know the answer to that participant in dialogue, and must always be open question. to learning something him- or herself. It follows from this, that the Socratic professor does not 6. Welcome the crazy idea that offers a new seek deference to his or her authority. Nor does perspective on the topic, but discourage those ideas he or she create a cult of personality by seeming which are not serious. aloof, cold, and distant. Instead, the Socratic professor knows his or her students names, and 7. Brevity and short interventions from the profes- the students know each others names. sor are most welcome. No speeches or long lec- The Socratic professor aims for productive tures. discomfort, not panic and intimidation. The aim is not to strike fear in the hearts of students so that 8. Discourage obsequious deference to authority they come prepared to class; but to strike fear in and status. Break this down if at all possible. the hearts of students that they either cannot Stanford students are too practiced at doing articulate clearly the values that guide their lives, school and discovering what they need to know to or that their values and beliefs do not withstand get by. scrutiny. 9. Find a classroom space that encourages interac- Tips for Using the Socratic Method tion. Seats bolted to the floor put one at an immedi- ate disadvantage. 1. Set down conversational guidelines: ! Learn student names and have the students 10. Finally, dont be scared of size! All of this is learn each other's names. possible even in large classes. The Socratic method ! Explain that participation requires listening is possible in a class as large as 70. Just use more and active engagement and that it is not enough to small groups. (continued on page 4) just insert a single comment in class and then be silent for the rest of the day. Award Winning Teachers ! Emphasize that students should focus their on Teaching Series comments on concepts or principles, not first- person narratives. Winter Quarter 2004 2. Ask questions and be comfortable with silence. January 24, Professor Robert Gray Silence is productive. Be willing to wait for Electrical Engineering students to respond. There is no need to fill a conversational void; silence creates a kind of helpful tension. Use the ten-second wait rule February 12, Professor John Rick before you attempt to re-phrase your questions! Anthropological Sciences
3. Find ways to produce productive discomfort. Talks will be from noon-1pm
Cold-calling works, but temper it with small Mitchell Earth Sciences Building group work so students can talk to their neighbor. Hartley Conference Center
Speaking of Teaching Fall 2003 Page 3
The Socratic Method At the end of his talk, Professor Reich gave an example of an exercise in Socratic method in which Selected Bibliography he posed a moral dilemma to his audience (you are the conductor of a train that has lost its brakes and Gregory Vlastos, ed., The Philosophy of you have to make the choice to either kill five Socrates, Notre Dame: University of Notre workers on the tracks of an alternate route, or risk Dame Press, 1971. killing all 300 passengers on the train) and asked them to make arguments for what should be done. Gregory Vlastos, Socratic Studies, Cam- He then followed up each suggestion provocatively, bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. pushing each speaker to defend and articulate the reasons and values underlying their decision (is it David Hansen, Was Socrates a Socratic better to save the many at the expense of the few?), Teacher? Educational Theory, Vol 38, No. and then applied their reasoning to other moral 2, 1988. dilemmas in which their conclusions might not be as defensible. In each round of questioning, Professor Reich CTL Workshop Series tried to focus on breaking down the assumptions of the respondents in an effort to build truth back Winter 2004 upwhich is exactly the task of the Socratic professor in the classroom. When asked if he ever asserts his own views in the classroom, Professor Practice Teaching Sessions Reich responded that he usually waits until the discussion has run its course and even then he might engage in a bit of pedagogical deception (taking a Leading Effective Discussions position he might not necessarily hold) in order to push students to examine their own premises. While Reichs model of the Socratic method is Learning Styles: Know Your not based entirely on Socratess methods in Platos Students Strengths and dialogues, it is a long way from the confrontational humiliation that has become mistakenly associated DiversifyYour Teaching with the Socratic approach. Instead, as practiced by Reich and others, the Socratic method is a dynamic format for helping our students to take genuine Launching a Faculty Career intellectual risks in the classroom and to learn about critical thinking. # Teaching Effective PowerPoint More information about Professor Rob Reich can be found at his web site: www.stanford.edu/~reich Maintaining and Updating Speaking of Teaching is compiled and edited by CTL Associate Director Valerie Ross. Please feel free to Websites on the Leland Server contact Dr. Ross at varlet@stanford.edu with any questions, suggestions, or comments; thank you! After January 1, check the CTL web site for dates and locations: http://ctl.stanford.edu
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