12 ms·
I was a graduate student advised by a dedicated practitioner of the Socratic method. My experience showed me that this method is incredibly powerful, both to te
by noahdesu 9y ago
I was a graduate student advised by a dedicated practitioner of the Socratic method. My experience showed me that this method is incredibly powerful, both to teach students to think, and later as an educator in our research lab, as a method for honing my own understanding.
However... there is a lot of effort that must be put into the style of its application. My mentor didn't know when to turn it off, and never seemed to get the timing quite right when explaining that we were involved in this uncommon methodology. This may be less of an issue for certain categories of content being taught, but we were working on low-level kernel concurrency control mechanisms. It was a challenge.
When I started as an educator in our research lab, I realized that I had completely internalized this methodology. And as time went on I realized that the method allowed me to easily fall into a trap where I felt and acted superior to others, didn't inform people about the methodology, and likely came off as an asshole.
I continue to use this method with success. Students generally develop a lot of independence quite quickly, but it has been a challenge knowing when to turn off, and remembering to let everyone involved know that it is a teaching style rather than my own weird behavior.
- ismail 9y agohow would one go about learning this effectively?
- teachrdan 9y agoHow have you tried learning about the Socratic Method so far?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- 0xdeadbeefbabe 9y agooh very funny. Edit: Have you ever seen the question game on Whose Line Is It Anyway?
- ddebernardy 9y agoBasically never take any explanation as a given (and acknowledge and embrace not knowing). One could argue that kids know the method quite well when they're around 4 years old and subsequently unlearn it: - Why? - [Explanation] - Why? - [Explanation] - Why? - [Explanation] - Why? [Starts ripping hair out.] - [Explanation] - Why? [Rips more hair out.] - [Explanation] [More of the same until adult loses patience or kid runs out of questions. If kid never gives in...] - Why? - Just because! ^^^ This is how you unlearned it.
- deelowe 9y agoYou jest, but "5 whys" is a real tool: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_Whys https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_Whys
- qznc 9y agoThere is a variation: - Why? - [Explanation] Why did you want to know? - You are not allowed to ask questions. [Asks different question]
- Razengan 9y agoSome honesty here would help: "I/We don't know." "This is what works." "Enough people just decided on it." I think it would make a big difference to the child's worldview, that we as a species are still pretty much new to figuring everything out, and that adults aren't infallible know-it-alls, not to be questioned. Cultivating "doubt without helplessness" may actually turn out to be beneficial to overall society.
- CGamesPlay 9y agoWhat sorts of questions do you ask that lead you to come off as superior? How have you changed your approach to avoid putting off your students?
- noahdesu 9y agoI think that the issue isn't the questions themselves, it's the interaction that results. Student: "why is my Java application crashing", "That's a stack trace. Does it say anything useful?", Student: "No I don't see anything.", It looks like we aren't seeing the whole trace. Have you scrolled up?" etc... the more this goes on, the more it feels quite awkward even if the result is positive. Maybe I'm bias having been on the receiving end in the past. I've changed my approach by not letting things get out of hand. If I notice that the process is taking a long time or someone gets frustrated, I either let them know about the process or just take a different approach, like just answering the question. The challenge is that, at least in the research setting, I often don't know the answer either. So if the student thinks I know the answer, and I'm just asking them questions, it comes off poorly. So I'll let them know I don't know the answer either, and that we are working through it.
- peterwwillis 9y agoThere's a hidden benefit to taking it too far. If you annoy someone with your constant simple questions, they will finally determine that asking you to solve their problems for them will take too long, and they'll try to solve it themselves. Or they'll ask someone else. Either way it's one less annoying student :)
- anonacct37 9y agoI have to deploy this method with internal customers. I call it either proof-of-work or back pressure.
- keithnz 9y agoI'd love to see an alt site called SocraticOverflow, where people answer everyones programming questions like this :) I know a lot of the time people on stackoverflow only have a problem because they haven't asked themselves the right question. Of course, there's still a lot where it's just a gap in knowledge that needs filling in.
- WalterBright 9y agoI'm fine with the method when being tutored and I've asked for help. I get pretty annoyed at it when someone asks me questions they clearly know the answer to. It's patronizing and manipulative.
- noahdesu 9y agoThat seems like a pretty good rule of thumb.