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Socrates was an

early Greek philosopher

and teacher (c. 470

399 B.C.E.) whobelieved that the best

way to teach and learn

was through

disciplined, rigorous

questioning.

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Socratic questioning is dis iplined questioningthat can be used to explore thought in many

directions and for many purposes.

Socrates often attempted to help the student

uncover self-deception in his thinking. This

provides evidence that Socrates was aware of

the self-deceptive nature of human thought.

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PURPOSES OF SOCRATIC METHOD:

to explore complex ideas

to get to the truth of things

to open up issues and

problems

to uncover assumptions

to analyze concepts

to distinguish what we know

from what we dont know, and to follow out logical

implications of thought

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The Socratic method involves two primaryprocesses - the destructiveand the

constructiveprocess.

A. In the destru tive pro ess, ideas formerlyheld dear to the student are shown to beillogical or otherwise unsound. In otherwords, the student comes to recognize theflawed nature of his reasoning.

B. In the onstru tive pro ess, the student isencouraged to replace the flawed thinkingwith logical or justifiable thinking.

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Teachers temperament is vital: a

respectful, non-confrontational

devils advocate

Questioning process challenges

assumptions and moves students

toward greater specificity

Proposition of hypothetical

situations

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Students come to knowledge in

their own through carefully wordedquestions that spur a particular train

of thought

For the modern method to work,students are expected to be

prepared for class in advance

Pedagogically, the modern method

encourages students to reason

critically rather than appeal to

authority

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Why should we bring critical thinking intoinstruction? What does it add toschooling?

What is the relationship between criticalthinking and education?

How can we bring critical thinking into

everything we do in the classroomefficiently?What does it mean to be an educated

person?

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