Using Socratic Discussions

True Knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing. Socrates

An unexamined life is not worth living. Socrates

To find yourself, think for yourself. Socrates

When the debate is over, slander becomes the tool of the loser. Socrates

There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance. Socrates

Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel. Socrates

I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think. Socrates

Socrates Viewed by many as the founding figure of Western philosophy, Socrates (469-399 B.C.) is at once the most exemplary and the strangest of the Greek philosophers. He grew up during the golden age of Pericles’ Athens, served with distinction as a soldier, but became best known as a questioner of everything and everyone. His style of teaching—immortalized as the Socratic Method—involved not conveying knowledge but rather asking question after clarifying question until his students arrived at their own understanding. He wrote nothing himself, so all that is known about him is filtered through the writings of a few contemporaries and followers, most of all, his student Plato. He was accused of corrupting the youth of Athens and sentenced to death. Choosing not to flee, he spent his final days in the company of his friends before drinking the executioner’s cup of poisonous hemlock. https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/socrates

Socratic Discussion What I tell my year 11s: “Today we'll look at what a Socratic discussion is and why it's important in English and for your future studies. Socratic discussions take time to learn and grow in confidence, usually they say it takes an 8 week period to learn how to do them properly- so Year 11 is a great time to try these and grow in confidence.” I spend a lesson prepping them for the discussion, so they know what they’re doing and how to prepare for it.

Socratic Discussion- skills Independence Initiative Questioning Confidence Critical thinking reflection

Socratic Discussion- buy in To get the best out of this process you need to get the students to buy into the concept- ultimately you’re telling this that the skills from Socratic discussion can help them beyond your classroom. In other subjects and year 12 In tertiary study (particularly university- you call talk about lecture/tutorial structure, the use of forums and online discussion, and the need to have a voice) In the workplace In life- the ability and confidence to question (a contract, a legal document etc where critical thinking skills could benefit)

Socratic Discussion- Talk them through the structure There are several ways you can group students, in the way that I’ve used them here, it does not require the teacher to be in the group, rather I float around and visit the groups, keep an ear on their discussion and help to support their discussion. For our study of short stories I split the class into groups of 6 students. I have had groups of up to about 14, but think there’s too many beyond that- I do know teachers that have groups of 18-20 in their class at Year 12, and so have one group. There is a method where you have a discussion group, and extra students observe the discussion and at the end give feedback to the discussion group about the way the discussion operated.

Socratic Discussion- Talk them through the structure cont… Students should prepare the text before arriving to the discussion. I had the students annotate the stories. we have been using a framework called GAPS SCAM-D (Genre, audience, purpose, style, and structure, character, action, mood, description) Set a time limit (our first one was 30 minutes, depending on the texts you may like to set a shorter time-frame eg 15-20 minutes) Let them know there’s a discussion leader- they can guide the discussion, point out if a student is having too much airtime, keep an eye on time, ask questions if things get stuck, can encourage students who haven’t spoken to contribute.

Socratic Discussion- creating a safe space Appeal to their self-interest Help them understand what this looks like Speak to students about the importance of creating a safe space for discussion, as this what helps to have effective sessions; if students don’t feel safe to speak, share or question then they don’t get the best out of the experience With my class we joke that ‘what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas’ That means that theirs is no silly question, and that it’s okay to have an idea which others may not agree with, and which you may decide is wrong- better to find out here than in an assignment.

Socratic Discussion- creating a safe space- set some norms (you can do this yourself or collaboratively with the students) Speak to students about the importance of creating a safe space for discussion, as this what helps to have effective sessions; if students don’t feel safe to speak, share or question then they don’t get the best out of the experience We speak about the importance of having a voice, being respectful and sharing thoughtfully.

Handout to help students know what to do, and how to go about it The questions are based on suggestions found at https://www.facinghistory.org/resource- library/teaching-strategies/socratic-seminar

WE finished with Post its At the end of the lesson students were asked to write two positive things about the experience, and one thing they’d like to change, or do differently next time We do this each time we do a socratic discussion

Seeing it in action

Ways to adapt it to work for you Give students some more specific questions for their text to help them prepare the text for the discussion Give students topics that their discussion should cover- this could be given to discussion leaders to tick off as they cover Adapt the questions to suit the learning taking place- some of the generic questions on my handout won’t help them cover GAPS SCAM-D so I could have provided more scaffolding for them Try and see what does and doesn’t work- a lot of students asked for more time, but as they became more practiced they found they needed less (they were better prepared, more ready to share, and had a better idea of what to discuss)

Questions? akelly@westminster.sa.edu.au