Why socratic seminars

Making Assessment a Learning Experience. Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners. Mentoring and Induction. Motivational and Thought Provoking. Common Core Mind Shifts. Common Misconceptions About the Common Core. Creativity and the Common Core. Creating Classroom Cultures for Thinking. Nature has given us two ears, two eyes, and but one tongue — to the end that we should hear and see more than we speak.

Named after the philosopher Socrates, the Socratic Seminar is a structured dialogue between students about important ideas or moral and ethical issues found in a text or across multiple texts. Not only do they ignite critical thinking, but Socratic Seminars facilitate the construction of new knowledge through connections to prior knowledge, the asking and answering of questions, the need for evidence to substantiate claims, and the ability to look at an issue from multiple perspectives.

What distinguishes a Socratic Seminar from other class discussions is that once students are well prepared to generate and ask probing questions, the teacher completely steps aside and assumes the role of an observer. The goal of a Socratic Seminar is not to debate, but rather to have a dialogue that enables the participants to construct meaning of the concepts presented in the text.

Prior to their engagement in the Socratic Seminar, students prepare for the discussion by reading and annotating a text the teacher has selected. To begin the seminar, eight to twelve students seated in chairs form an inner circle in the room. In large classes, the other students form an outer circle with each student sitting behind one of their classmates who is in the inner circle.

The conversation begins with the leader posing an opening question. Other students in the inner circle reflect on the question then formulate a response. While the students seated in the inner circle are having a dialogue about the text or other source material by asking and answering questions and responding to the thinking of others, the students seated in the outer circle are silent and observing, taking notes and reflecting on the dialogue.

Once the dialogue has ended, students sitting in the outer circle provide feedback to those students in the inside circle. Then, for the second half of the seminar, or on the next day, the two circles switch roles.

At the end of each seminar, students reflect in writing about the new knowledge they gained during the seminar, as well as their own performance. An essential step in preparing students to take part in effective Socratic Seminars is the establishment of ground rules.

Without them, student conversations fall flat. Suggested ground rules for a Socratic Seminar include:. The selected text should inspire thought provoking conversation, while also being at the appropriate intellectual and social developmental level for students.

In the end, Socratic seminars take practice. It is a process for both you and your students. The more times you use one, the more confident students will feel with asking each other questions, using evidence to support their points, and disagreeing with each other. Over time you will see your students grow not just as academics but as critical thinkers, too. Erin Vanek is a gifted intervention specialist with 10 years of experience in the education world. She has done everything from tutoring middle-school students in Spanish to teaching AP English to seniors.

No matter what she is teaching, she is always looking for creative ways to make her lessons meaningful to her students. Also, check out her store on Teachers Pay Teachers. Do you have the inner circle and outer circle discussing the same book part or article? I nornally have the inner circle discuss the book, then the outer circle reflect on the discussion. I model question types, and will usually have an anchor chart with prompting statements to help the kids. I was nervous to try Socratic Seminars, but now I love them!

The time typically depends on the class and topic. My 8th graders could have a meaningful discussion for an entire 50 minute period, while my 5th graders could last around 30 minutes. Im doing my first Socratic Seminar tomorrow and I was so nervous, but this post was so helpful — thank you!!

Do you have a copy of an outer circle response sheet that I can use as a model for teaching outer circle responsibilities? It would be so helpful.

Your email address will not be published. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Why is this question important? How do you think we can answer this question? Does the data have consequences?

How does data apply to you? What experience do you have with this? Based on the history and physical condition of the patient, can you give a diagnostic? A Socratic Seminar needs a set of rules for participants to take the most out of it. For instance, learners need to time their interventions Griswold et al. In that way, Seminar time is more evenly distributed, and participants have more chances to intervene in the discussion.

Also, learners should have prepared materials e. Learners could be encouraged to refer by name to others while discussing and to avoid raising hands to promote the natural flow of the discussion. Finally, instructors are encouraged to plan in advance the classroom arrangement. Griswold et al. However, they understand that roundtables are not always possible and offer an alternative for large classes: the fishbowl arrangement.

Fishbowl means that there are two concentric circles facing inwards. The circle in the center contributes to the discussion while the outer circle listens and waits for their turn to contribute. For the sake of clarity, the term toxic quizzing will be used. However, toxic quizzing intends to provoke admiration towards instructors and portray them as superior to their learners.

For the novice and intermediate learners, Kirschner et al. For more advanced learners, minimal guidance was equally effective as direct guidance Kirschner et al.

Although scientific thinking can occur without guidance, Kirschner et al. In the case of the Socratics Seminar, the instruction is the application of scientific thinking itself.

Hattie and Donoghue explain that the low efficiency related to problem-based or inquiry-based methods is due to using them on learners who have not acquired sufficient prior knowledge yet. Thus, this chapter strongly encourages practitioners to know their learners before embarking on any instructional methods and to think of pre-planning as the most relevant part of the Socratic Seminar—more relevant than the discussion itself.

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Planning, practice, and assessment in the seminar classroom. The High School Journal , 90 1 , 1—8. Chowning, J. Socratic Seminars in Science Class. Science Teacher , 76 7 , 36— The Socratic Method in a foreign language classroom.

Acta Paedagogica Vilnesia , Facione, P. Holistic Critical Thinking Scoring Rubric. Garrison, D. Critical thinking, cognitive presence, and computer conferencing in distance education. American Journal of Distance Education , 15 1 , 7— Griswold, A. Socratic seminar with data: A strategy to support student discourse and understanding. The American Biology Teacher , 79 6 , — Hattie, J. Learning strategies: A synthesis and conceptual model.

Npj Science of Learning , 1 1. Jensen, R. The effectiveness of the Socratic Method in developing critical thinking skills in English language learners. Grace University. Kessels, J. Free space. Field guide to conversations. Amsterdam: Boom. Kirschner, P. Educational pychologist why minimal guidance during instruction does not work: An analysis of the failure of constructivist, discovery, problem-based, experiential, and inquiry-based teaching.

Educational Psychologist , 41 2 , 75— Krathwohl, D. Theory into Practice , 41 4 , — Lodge an online ticket. Directory A to Z Find a department. How to guides How to A to Z. Megamenu mobile nav Welcome to education. Public schools Information about NSW public education, including the school finder, high school enrolment, school safety, selective schools and opportunity classes. Student wellbeing The Wellbeing Framework supports schools to create learning environments that enable students to be healthy, happy, engaged and successful.

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