The Socratic Method Today

Student-Centered and Transformative Teaching in Political Science

Lee Trepanier

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9780815371885
• eBook ISBN: 9781351245807
• Topic: Política y relaciones internacionales
• Subtopic: Enseñanza de ciencias sociales

This exciting new textbook provides a sophisticated examination of the Socratic method for teaching political science students in higher education. It shows how the Socratic method is employed in the Platonic dialogs, compares its transformative approach to other student-centered teaching philosophies, and addresses the challenges of adopting the Socratic method in the contemporary classroom.

The book is divided into three sections that integrate these practical aspects on the Socratic method with the theoretical considerations of Socratic philosophy while also addressing contemporary concerns about teaching and learning in higher education.

• Section One explores how the Socratic method is portrayed by Socrates in Plato's dialogs.
• Section Two compares the Socratic method with modern and contemporary accounts of teaching and learning.
• Section Three examines some of the contemporary challenges of practicing the Socratic method in the university classroom today and how teachers can overcome them.

Written in a clear and engaging style, this timely intervention is essential reading for upper undergraduate students enrolled in courses that specialize in pedagogical techniques, political theory, Socratic philosophy, and law.

Part I
The Socratic Method in Plato’s Dialogs

1
Poetic Questions in the Socratic Method

Marlene K. Sokolon

On the first day of class, I noticed him. He sat at the back, with his cowboy hat covering his face and feet sprawled in front of him. He seemed rarely to pay attention and never took notes. He would answer questions when asked, but never volunteered his own opinions. His first assignment, outlining the argument of the various definitions of justice in Book One of the Republic, was competent, but formulaic. His second assignment, on Plato’s censorship of the poets, offered typical critiques that it was authoritarian and violated freedom of expression. When he came to the required meeting to discuss his term paper, I expected very little.

“What topic are you thinking of writing on?” I asked.

“Maybe something to do with the education of the guardians.”

“Okay,” I replied, “what do you find interesting about this topic?”

“It seems to me that Socrates thinks that education should really change people,” he said.

“I think he takes education way more seriously than we do today. It is not about training for a job or checking off what one learns. Most of my classes are about cramming all kinds of information in my head – like memorizing definitions from textbooks or stats about stuff. Or repeating to professors the opinions they want to hear. I don’t think that kind of teaching could ever change anyone.”

A bit surprised by his response, I follow up by asking, “So you think Plato shows us an example of a kind of education that could change people?”

“Sure,” he said, “Plato is about how different types of people think and act. Some of the people Socrates talks with are jerks, like Thrasymachus. I have a friend like him, who is only interested in telling others what to think and not listening to what they think.”

He went on to write the best undergraduate essay I have ever received.

This student, whom I nicknamed Cowboy Plato (a genuine cowboy who earned money to pay for college by breaking in horses), was enrolled in several courses I taught at a small university in the panhandle of Texas. In my current classes, I tell stories of this student and his questions and ideas about the assigned readings, sometimes as a “foil” to engage students in offering their ideas about the material, but more often as an approachable contemporary interlocutor of historical texts. In response, students tend to be more at liberty in offering their own ideas and personal stories and such narrations often become crucial to class discussion of course content. Despite what seems to be an obvious pedagogical approach to engage students in course material, many contemporary proponents of what is called the “Socratic method” focus on a rationalized method and pay little attention to the crucial role of storytelling in Plato’s dialogs. This chapter, first, explores perspectives on the contemporary pedagogical “Socratic method,” including elements typically deemed crucial for its use in the classroom. It then turns to the debate on what we can extract from Plato’s example of the way in which Socrates “teaches.” Finally, it turns to explore Plato’s use of narrative in two examples from the Republic: the ship of state in Book Four and the allegory of the cave in Book Seven. As both examples highlight, Plato’s use of narrative or “image-making” as part of the dialectical conversation, not only reinforces his logical argumentation but is a necessary component of these arguments and the soul’s educational journey.

Socratic Method: The Contemporary Teaching Tool

Although widespread in contemporary pedagogy, there is no agreed upon definition of the “Socratic method” or the conditions or context of when it should be used in an educational setting.¹ At minimum, the method is understood as a pedagogical style employing a teacher-led question-and-answer format to foster student discussion and active learning; in the extreme, proponents require adherence to a formal structure in which the teacher systematically directs students through a series of steps that develop critical reasoning (often with expected learning outcomes). Proponents of the Socratic method are found in all educational levels from early elementary classrooms to doctoral tutorials. It is employed in virtually every discipline from the hard sciences and mathematics to the humanities, social sciences, and legal studies.

Introduced as a pedagogical approach by the German philosopher Leonard Nelson’s 1922 seminal lecture entitled “The Socratic Method,” it developed in response to two educational models of the twentieth century. First, the Socratic method challenges the overreliance on passive learning models, such as formal lecturing, and rote memorization of concepts and ideas. In contrast, by emphasizing a “self-directed,” “learning-centered,” or “human centered” process, the method engages students in active learning, because it requires them to “do [their] own thinking” or “actively construct their own understanding.”² Second, the Socratic method counters the continuing preoccupation in higher education on training for vocational knowledge and marketplace skills. It was particularly influential on the Great Books movement as a way to interrogate texts by gaining deeper insight into the truth of philosophic questions. It continues to be championed as a strength of humanities and liberal art programs, which employ it to develop critical thinking skills and the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake.³

Because the approach to Socratic questioning is so broad, it is impossible to provide agreed upon criteria for the practice, except that it necessarily involves conversation, dialog, or “talk” directed to elicit understanding. Broadly speaking, the teacher should not tell students the answer, but function as a neutral facilitator who guides students with a series of questions which challenge original understandings and opinions.⁴ Although the characteristics of the method are debated, many scholars approach it systematically.

Boghossian, for example, argues that the method involves five stages: wonder (the posing of a question); hypothesis (the student’s original understanding or opinion); cross-examination and counterexamples (elenchus); acceptance or rejection of counterexamples to the hypothesis; and action on outcomes.⁵ Others focus on three stages: elenchus (here understood as an acknowledgment of perplexity); mental midwifery (the activity of learning or “remembering”); tethering or binding new knowledge to previous knowledge.⁶ Others still focus on outlining expectations of the participants: honesty in expressing convictions; articulation of ideas in clear, logical language; willingness to work with and understand others; and critical evaluation of one’s own views.⁷ Kreeft argues that the method requires honesty on the part of participants, rejection of extreme positions such as pure skepticism or dogmatism, and the overcoming of extreme attitudes, such as the fear of reason.⁸ From this perspective, the Socratic method is a systematic approach to discussion-based learning intended to replace faulty thinking with deeper insight. It employs questioning for the sake of rigorous and sound reasoning intended to seek clarity and transparency on any discussion topic. What makes the method “Socratic” is not that discussion is expected to arrive at specific outcomes, but that “all opinions should be advanced with reasons.”⁹

Other perspectives, especially those which emphasize the “Socratic” origin of teaching, understand the method not as a neutral tool to promote active learning, but emphasize the significance of the student as a “moral agent.”¹⁰ The use of the Socratic method can promote moral pedagogy in two ways. First, the Socratic discussion can focus directly on moral questions that require judgment of better or worse answers. This approach is promoted in the humanities and social sciences which use course content to develop and practice this kind of critical thinking and moral judgment.¹¹ In this case, the topic under Socratic discussion focuses on abstract moral principles or ontological analysis. By asking abstract philosophic questions, such as “what is justice,” students want “to win knowledge about their own inner experience and develop insights into the truth concerning philosophical questions.”¹² Although Nelson rejected the idea that ethical principles could be derived from observed facts, some teachers use the method to guide moral judgment by using practical examples of moral conundrums. For example, in lessons intended to develop adolescent character, children are asked to think through questions, such as whether they should buy a stolen bicycle.¹³ It is through thinking and talking about real-world examples that children come to recognize and understand for themselves the difference between poor and better moral choices.

Second the Socratic method is also promoted as a form of moral pedagogy even if the content of discussion is not philosophic or ethical, because the method develops critical thinking skills considered essential to living together in a political community. Consequently, regardless of the topic of discussion or course content, Socratic questioning promotes “rational thinking, persistence, and pattern recognition”; the method can lead to improved self-reflection, autonomous and independent thinking, and an increased willingness to cooperate and work with others.¹⁴ In the group format, often called “Socratic Circles,” participants are expected to participate in open and honest discussion and strive for consensus.¹⁵ By employing the method, students gain “greater clarity about what is and what is not in keeping with considered, thoughtful, and reasonable conduct.”¹⁶ The Socratic method is promoted because it provides a rich set of reasoning skills that either directly or indirectly helps students engage in the moral perplexity of the world. This goal of the method is not surprising. Nelson, for example, was extremely active in socialist politics and viewed his seminal work on the Socratic method as a way to rationally train activists and enrich the civic community.¹⁷ From this perspective, the Socratic method is not simply a neutral pedagogical tool used in educational settings, but because it develops “reasoning abilities requisite to living a rational life,” the student is central to broader political goals of living well in just communities.¹⁸

Thus, although the method is used broadly and in various contexts, goals of the Socratic method appear threefold. First, it is a pedagogical method intended to help students think about and discover for themselves factual or evidence-based knowledge in any discipline. Second, the Socratic method can directly ask students to engage in questions of moral and philosophic reasoning that allow students to...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Contributors
• Introduction: The Socratic Method Today
• PART I The Socratic Method in Plato’s Dialogs
• PART II The Socratic Method and Other Approaches
• PART III The Socratic Method in the Classroom
• Appendix to Chapter 8: Discussion Questions for Plato’s Laches
• Index