e-Learning Ecologies MOOC’s Updates

The Socratic method in teaching critical thinking

Since this week’s theme revolves around the social aspects of learning and building “motivational structures” (Cope & Kalantzis, 2017), I’d like to introduce a pedagogical method that increases students’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and develops students’ critical thinking skills through the exercise of dialogic and collaborative intelligence. This method loosely follows the teaching of Socrates, who basically refused to offer any set answers (“The only thing I know is that I know nothing”) and attempted to arrive at some tentative conclusions by asking questions and talking through them with others. In this setup, the teacher merely serves as a guide to provide structure and discipline needed for the discussion, while it is the students who do most of the work – asking relevant questions, responding to others, evaluating each other’s ideas and contributions, making decisions about conclusions.

To quote Stanford University’s Center for Teaching and Learning (2003), the Socratic method:

  • uses questions to examine the values, principles, and beliefs of students,
  • focuses on moral education, on how one ought to live,
  • demands a classroom environment characterized by “productive discomfort,”
  • is better used to demonstrate complexity, difficulty, and uncertainty than at eliciting facts about the world.

I have used it with a high degree in success in teaching discussion skills, as well as critical thinking based on textual analysis. For my purposes, the Socratic seminar was particularly relevant and productive. Elfie Israel (2002) defines the Socratic seminar as “a formal discussion, based on a text, in which the leader asks open-ended questions.” Israel also underscores the social benefits of this type of enquiry for students: “Within the context of the discussion, students listen closely to the comments of others, thinking critically for themselves, and articulate their own thoughts and their responses to the thoughts of others. They learn to work cooperatively and to question intelligently and civilly” (89).

A good example of this type of seminar, with testimonials attesting to its effectiveness in the classroom, can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69Qv3I0nuNg

In my own classroom, I used this method to teach university students about media in the digital age. A good starting point could be some texts about intellectual property, copyright, or plagiarism, such as today’s ubiquitous mashup culture, which relies on the creative re-using and re-purposing of collectively owned artifacts. In the words of the artist and computer philosopher Jaron Lanier, the creative minds of the Internet age are encouraged “to treat the fruits of their intellects and imaginations as fragments to be given without pay to the hive mind” (quoted in Kakutani, 2010).

How to set up a Socratic seminar:

Students read a pre-assigned text in preparation for discussion, and come up with a few questions. They bring the text to class together with notes. They sit in a circle facing each other; the teacher can assign them roles (Facilitator, Comment Tracker, Devil’s Advocate, etc.). There should be clearly established and enforced rules of civil discussion (no interruptions, proper turn-taking).

 

References:

Center for Teaching and Learning. (2003). The Socratic method: What it is and how to use it in the classroom. Speaking of Teaching: Stanford University Newsletter on Teaching, 13(1). Retrieved from https://web.stanford.edu/dept/CTL/Newsletter/socratic_method.pdf

Foundation for Critical Thinking. (2015). Socratic teaching. http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/socratic-teaching/606

Israel, E. (2002). Examining multiple perspectives in literature.” In J. Holden & J. S. Schmit (Eds), Inquiry and the literary text: Constructing discussions in the English classroom. Urbana, IL: NCTE.

Kakutani, M. (2010, March 17). Words without contexts. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/books/21mash.html

Wiggins, G. (2004). Socratic seminar: Guidelines. Authentic Education. Retrieved from https://www.authenticeducation.org/documents/WhatSeminar04.pdf