IDEAS

Model 4: The Modern Socratic Method

“Questions, and only questions, are used to arouse curiosity and at the same time serve as a logical, incremental, step-wise guide that enables students to figure out about a complex topic or issue with their own thinking and insights.”²

Learning Intention

The Modern Socratic Method can be used to lead students to factual knowledge in small inferential steps.”⁵ By contrast, the Classic Socratic Method works well for helping students develop critical thinking and uncover the complexity of issues.

Overview

The Modern Socratic Method involves teaching by asking rather than by telling, posing questions that elicit understanding in the minds of students. The Modern Socratic educator uses a question-and-response discussion format to gradually lead students through a process of discovery that results in gaining knowledge of specific processes, measurable data, or verifiable facts.

Instructions

1. Begin planning your lesson by reflecting on the incremental, logical inferences that move a scholar through the process of discovering the fact or data set you want students to learn. This may involve doing some experimenting of your own, exploring others’ thought processes, and/or following various trails of inquiry toward the conclusions you want students to draw.
2. Plan a set of step-wise questions that incrementally raise awareness, pique curiosity, and lead students through logical inferences in the direction of uncovering the truths you want them to see. See this example set of discussion questions that led elementary students to understand binary arithmetic. It might help to work backwards by starting with the question(s) you want students to be able to answer by the end of the class, then figure out which questions to ask to guide students toward that conclusion.
3. Be prepared to think up additional questions on-the-spot depending on the answers students provide to the questions. Sometimes questions need to go back to a simpler step in the process; other times questions need to redirect the line of inquiry altogether.
4. When students finally get stuck trying to answer a question, and reverting to more simple questions doesn’t help them get unstuck (or you get stuck trying to determine the next question to ask), some “telling” may be in order. Hopefully, by then, students’ curiosity has been raised and your telling can be in direct response to a question students are asking.²

Considerations

• It is important to develop a classroom environment that is conducive to “productive discomfort” so that students feel supported in posing questions and experimenting with ideas.¹ Invest some time early in the quarter to allow students to get to know one another and to appreciate the process of discovery and the joy and excitement of pursuing answers.
• Brainstorm leading questions prior to class so you can ensure they are interesting, incremental, precise, logical, and designed to illuminate particular points. This will increase the likelihood that students arrive at the conclusions you hope they will.
• It might be helpful to students to periodically summarize the discussion, highlighting both questions/responses that have been dealt with and those yet to be considered.⁴
  

References

1. Chapman, S. (no date). The Socratic Method: Fostering Critical Thinking,
   
   The Institute for Learning and Teaching at Colorado State University.
   Available online.
2. Garlikov, R. (no date). The Socratic Method: Teaching by Asking Instead of Telling.
   Available online.
3. Maxwell, M. & Melete (2014). How to Use the Socratic Method. The Socratic
   Method Research Portal. Available online.
4. Paul, R. and Elder, L. (April 1997). Socratic Teaching, Foundation For Critical
   Thinking. Available online.
5. Reich, R. (May 2003) The Socratic Method: What is it and How to Use It in the
   Classroom, presentation at Stanford Teaching Commons.
   Available online.