Socratic Dialogue and Seminars Essential Update 5

Socratic dialogue comes from a method that Plato, Socrates most famous student, wrote down from conversations/dialogues Socrates had with the students in Plato’s academy (Cope & Kalantzis). These dialogues explored topics starting with Socrates putting forth questions about a topic and then holding a discussion on it, in which he acted as a facilitator and promoted critical thinking that was reflective but each individual added his own independent ideas and the group collectively explored them. The purpose was to explore what they knew about a topic. It was acceptable not to come to a definite answer. "The dialogues are also a form of 'dialectical' reasoning, a branch of logic focusing on reasoning in philosophical matters where absolute certainty may be unattainable but where truth is pursued to a high degree of probability"(Murphy and Katula, 2003).

As an English teacher, I have used Socratic Seminars in class to explore concepts that will be addressed in a text and to analyze and critique a text after reading. It can be difficult to get high school students to participate. Many are unsure of their answers and do not want to risk being wrong. There are those who are gifted and may tend to monopolize the conversation as well. It takes a good deal of explaining and modelling of the process to help students to be comfortable with it. However, once a class gets the hang of the process you can get very thoughtful points of view expressed. The teacher becomes the facilitator and the students are discovering important information through their shared critical and reflective think. One way to accomplish this online is to use zoom breakout rooms, allowing small groups of students to work together in zoom. The teacher crafts questions to help guide the discussion and exploration of the topic. Students can decide what product they want to produce that represents their discussion such as notes, PowerPoint, video, etc. The teacher can move from breakout room to breakout room as a facilitator.

Works Cited

Cope, Dr. Bill and Dr. May Kalantzis. “Recursive Feedback, Part 4D: Socratic Dialogue Finds a Home in the 21st Century.” Coursera.org. https://www.coursera.org/learn/elearning/lecture/NpBkq/recursive-feedback-part-4d-socratic-dialogue-finds-a-home-in-the-21st-century.

Murphy, James J. and Richard A. Katula, A Synoptic History of Classical Rhetoric. Lawrence Erlbaum, 2003.