Socrates was a Greek Philosopher who lived in the 5th century BC. He was known as the �Gadfly� � a person who upsets the status quo by asking uncomfortable questions. This is testament to the power of his method to get to the root and foundations of a subject, which is often wanted to be obscured by those with something to hide.
Whilst his method was the cause of many a headache to the ancient Greek establishment and eventually led to his downfall, it can also be successfully used to inquire into any topic. The purpose of the Socratic Method is to get to the most fundamental understanding of a concept, using an iterative process of questioning, with each round refining the nature of the question and revealing more information.
In order to be effective, Socratic questioning requires rigour and systematic thought. It goes hand in hand with critical thinking. It also relies on the enquirer asking good questions. The style of questioning is actually the key to the whole method.
For instance, if I wanted information about your job, I might ask you what your job title was. This tends to elicit a short factual answer. However, if I were to ask you �can you give me an example of a typical task that you accomplish each day?� then I would be likely to receive more detailed information. The greater degree of information given is likely to naturally suggest further questioning, probing deeper into the subject, which leads to a greater understanding.
When this method is used by a teacher, then the student is forced to examine their thoughts and ideas about a subject, which forges more connections amongst previously unclear viewpoints. It fosters a process of logical, rational thought which is necessary to work back to fundamental concepts underlying a subject. It forces a student to be more accurate and give more complete answers, leading to a fuller grasp of a topic. It also highlights gaps in a student�s knowledge when they are not able to completely expound the principles behind a concept.
In many ways, this is related to the idea that if you really want to understand something, then you have to teach it. In order to teach something, you must be able to break it down into its most basic component parts and be able to describe it from various angles. Socratic questioning is like a mirror to this process � working backwards from the complex and integrated to the basic and separated.
Considerable skill is required from a teacher as they guide the student through the process and lead them to make their own logical conclusions.
A great benefit of Socratic questioning is its ability to uncover assumptions that we make. Often, these assumptions are implicit in our beliefs and arguments. However, an erroneous belief left unexamined may form the foundation of inappropriate actions or thoughts. This has its corollary in education where a student believes that they have made a logical argument, when in fact it is based on unidentified flaws. If a student has been employing fuzzy thinking, then this can be discovered through the Socratic questioning process. However, what is more likely is that the argument would not be constructed as such in the first place as the student would have used the method to make a properly reasoned argument.
These skills become essential for high performance as a student moves through to the higher years of school, but they can be taught at a much earlier level. A student whose is trained in these logical processes will naturally adapt to the more demanding tasks required at higher levels of education.
