I'm reminded, however, of the line that Sally Field delivers in Murphy's Romance, when explaining the process of cleaning a horse's teeth:
"Some horses resist this procedure..."
ROFL.
Indeed. What an understatement. A great many students 'resist' Socratic methods in the same manner. It feels uncomfortable and frightening to older students that have always been told WHAT to think to suddenly be asked questions by a teacher, rather than "told" answers.
I learned to gently stop and look students in the eye and say; "You have to trust me. I'm leading you in the right direction, but you have to go with it for a bit to get there, okay? It takes a little longer this way, but it's worth it because it teaches YOU how to be the expert at tackling problems-- not just this problem."
That doesn't even apply to just children. I frequently employed the Socratic method to train new techs when I was in the Navy. They teach you the basics in school, and then you get to learn about the individual components, but the task of understanding the entire system as a unified whole, and how it ties into so many other components that aren't under our direct control, is left as an OJT experience.
So I was in the process of throwing questions at a new guy when another I had trained previously walked in the room. He turned to the new guy and said, "You probably think he's just being an a-hole, but he's really just trying to make you think." Later on I caught up with the older guy, and asked him if that's what he thought when I was training him. The answer was an unequivocal affirmative.
So said the smartest guy I ever trained.
