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Socratic Questioning and Critical Thinking

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Title: Socratic Questioning and Critical Thinking


1
Socratic Questioningand Critical Thinking
2
Thinking is driven by questions.
  • no questions
  • means
  • no understanding

3
Questions to guide our thinking
  • What is Socratic questioning?
  • What is critical thinking?
  • What is the relationship between Socratic
    questioning and critical thinking?
  • How can understanding critical thinking help us
    improve our ability to question?
  • How can we help students develop Socratic
    questioning abilities?

4
Defining Socratic Questioning
  • Socratic questioning is disciplined questioning
    that can be used to explore thought in many
    directions and for many purposes,

5
  • to explore complex ideas
  • to get to the truth of things
  • to open up issues and problems
  • to uncover assumptions
  • to analyze concepts
  • to distinguish what we know from what we dont
    know, and
  • to follow out logical implications of thought

6
  • The key to distinguishing Socratic questioning
    from questioning per se is that Socratic question
    is always systematic and deep, focusing on
    complex concepts, principles, theories, issues or
    problems.
  • It may or may not be self-directed. And it is
    usually done orally, rather than in written form.

7
Teachers, students, or indeed anyone can
construct Socratic questions and engage in
Socratic dialog.
  • When we use Socratic questioning in teaching, our
    purpose may be
  • to probe student thinking
  • to determine the extent of students knowledge on
    a given topic, issue or subject
  • to model Socratic question for them, or
  • to help them analyze a concept or line of
    reasoning.
  •  

8
  • In the final analysis we want students to learn
    the discipline of Socratic questioning, so that
    they begin to use it in reasoning through complex
    issues, in understanding and assessing the
    thinking of others, in following-out the
    implications of what they, and others think.

9
Thus, in teaching, our approach should be
two-fold
  • To deeply probe student thinking, to help them
    begin to distinguish what they know or understand
    from what they do not know or understand.
  • To foster students abilities to question
    socratically. We want to model intellectual
    moves that we would want students to emulate and
    begin to use in everyday life.

10
Socrates was an early Greek philosopher and
teacher (c. 470 399 B.C.E.) who believed that
the best way to teach and learn was through
disciplined, rigorous questioning.
11
  • Socrates thought that people learned best, not by
    being told what to believe or do, but by being
    guided through questioning to what made most
    sense to believe or do.
  • He often used questioning to help people see
    either that what they said they believed they did
    not, in fact, believe (because it didnt square
    with their behavior), or that what they said they
    believed was conceptually unsound or illogical.

12
  • Socrates was fundamentally concerned, then, with
    the soundness of reasoning, with getting closer
    and closer to the truth in any given situation.
    He was more interested in the process of
    learning, for him, the questioning process, than
    in reaching conclusions.

13
He was at home with complexities, confusion,
perplexities, and uncertainties. He was known
for the clarity of his thought, the sharpness of
his mind, the way in which he opened up questions
for debate and discussion, and the seemingly
tireless source of energy he expended in
expanding his mind and helping others do the
same.
14
In Athens, in 399 B.C.E., Socrates was accused,
indicted, and ultimately put to death for two
reasons
  • 1.  introducing and believing in gods other than
    those sanctioned by the state. (Though some
    accused Socrates of atheism, all evidence points
    in the opposite direction, evidenced, in part, by
    the fact that Socrates believed in life after
    death).
  • 2.   corrupting the young (by fostering their
    intellectual development, and encouraging them to
    question the status quo).

15
To understand the philosophy of Socrates, it is
useful to consider the question To what
extent was Socrates in fact a threat to the
State?
16
According to the Encyclopedia of Philosophy, p.
482
  • there was reason for fearing Socrates as a
    social force. Where arête excellence, in terms
    of how to make the best of oneself and live a
    rational life, education, and state were fused
    in one image, an educator critical of received
    assumptions was a revolutionary.

17
Socrates not only publicly raised such
fundamental questions as What is arête? And
Who are its teachers?
  • But by creating a climate of questioning and
    doubt, he was suspected by conservative minds of
    the dangerous game of discomfiting all authority
    before a circle of impressionable youths and
    subtracting from the state the stability of
    tradition.

18
  • It was also apparent that the values by which
    Socrates lived, his indifference to material
    wealth and prosperity, and his freedom from
    desire and ambition were themselves a living
    criticism of all institutions and of politicians
    who did not seem to know what they were doing or
    who were compromising their principles.

19
  • It seems clear that Socrates attempted to develop
    a systematic method of disciplined questioning
    that could be emulated. By studying the Socratic
    dialogues, we can explicate the components and
    processes that Socrates developed and practiced.
    In fact, if we are to emulate the intellectual
    skills and dispositions of Socrates, it is
    important to delineate, as clearly and precisely
    as we can, the dialectic method he advocated.

20
The Socratic method, as practiced by Socrates,
can be outlined as follows
  • 1.  The best way to teach is through dialectic
    reasoning, or a question-and-answer process.
    This process should be the primary teaching
    method, so that students practice, for many
    years, pursuing answers to questions in a
    disciplined, methodical way.
  • 2.   Socratic dialogs are usually focused on a
    specific complex concept or question, and
    exemplify a disciplined form of conceptual
    analysis.

21
  • The Socratic method involves two primary
    processes - the destructive and the constructive
    process.
  • In the destructive process, ideas formerly held
    dear to the student are shown to be illogical
    or otherwise unsound. In other words, the
    student comes to recognize the flawed nature of
    his reasoning.
  • In the constructive process, the student is
    encouraged to replace the flawed thinking with
    logical or justifiable thinking.

22
  • 4. Socrates often attempted to help the student
    uncover self-deception in his thinking. This
    provides evidence that Socrates was aware of the
    self-deceptive nature of human thought.
  • 5. A primary goal is to formulate principles by
    which to live, principles that emerge out of deep
    conceptual understandings.
  • 6. The method focuses on deep understanding of
    concepts through the careful use of analogies
    intuitive to the answerer.

23
What is the relationship between Socratic
questioning and critical thinking?
24
  • Critical thinking and Socratic questioning both
    share a common end.
  • Critical thinking gives one a comprehensive view
    of how the mind functions (in its pursuit of
    meaning and truth) and Socratic questioning takes
    advantage of that overview to frame questions
    essential to the quality of that pursuit.

25
  • The goal of critical thinking is to establish an
    additional level of thinking to our thinking, a
    powerful inner voice of reason, to monitor,
    assess, and re-constitute--in a more rational
    direction--our thinking, feeling, and action.
  • Socratic discussion cultivates that inner voice
    through an explicit focus on systematic, deep,
    disciplined questioning.

26
Thinking is Driven by
Questions
27
  • Questions define tasks, express problems and
    delineate issues. Answers on the other hand,
    often signal a full stop in thought.
  • Only when an answer generates a further question
    does thought continue its life as such.

28
This is why it is true that only students who
have questions are really thinking and learning.
29
  • Deep questions drive our thought underneath the
    surface of things, force us to deal with
    complexity.
  • Questions of purpose force us to define our task.
  • Questions of information force us to look at our
    sources of information as well as at the quality
    of our information.
  • Questions of interpretation force us to examine
    how we are organizing or giving meaning to
    information.

30
  • Questions of assumption force us to examine what
    we are taking for granted.
  • Questions of implication force us to follow out
    where our thinking is going.
  • Questions of point of view force us to examine
    our point of view and to consider other relevant
    points of view.

31
  • Questions of relevance force us to discriminate
    what does and what does not bear on a question.
  • Questions of accuracy force us to evaluate and
    test for truth and correctness.
  • Questions of precision force us to give details
    and be specific.

32
  • Questions of consistency force us to examine our
    thinking for contradictions.
  • Questions of logic force us to consider how we
    are putting the whole of our thought together, to
    make sure that it all adds up and makes sense
    within a reasonable system of some kind.

33
Key Questions
  • How can we bring critical thinking into the
    foundations of teaching?
  • How can we bring critical thinking into
    everything we do in the classroom efficiently and
    effectively so that critical thinking becomes an
    integral part of what we do rather than something
    we add to all the other stuff we already think we
    have to do?

34
Questions Leading to More Questions
  • Why should we bring critical thinking into
    instruction? What does it add to schooling?
  • What is the relationship between critical
    thinking and education?
  • What does it mean to be an educated person?

35
Questions Leading to Still More Questions
  • What intellectual skills should students learn in
    school?
  • How can we teach those skills?
  • What do I need to know, as a teacher, to foster
    the development of critical thinking in my
    students?

36
And Still More Questions
  • How can I approach my students as thinkers
    thinking their way through content?
  • How can I approach students as thinkers so that
    learn to actively construct ideas in their
    thinking?

37
Think About Your Questions
  • Make a list of the questions that are currently
    guiding your teaching.
  • Then share your list with a partner, and discuss
    how these questions are guiding your thinking.
    To what extent are your questions guiding you to
    foster disciplined thinking in students? To what
    extent are your questions helping to transform
    your students thinking?

38
Standards definitions
Standards of Reasoning
Clarity
Understandable, the meaning can be grasped
Accuracy
Free from errors or distortions, true
Precision
Exact to the necessary level of detail
Relevance
Relating to the matter at hand
Depth
Containing complexities and interrelationships
Breadth
Involving multiple viewpoints
Logic
The parts make sense together, no contradictions
Significance
Focusing on the important, not trivial
Fairness
Justifiable, not self-serving (or egocentric)
39
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40
What is Your Philosophy of Education?
  • B Questions CA observes
  • C Questions AB observes
  • A Questions BC observes

41
Contrasting 4 concepts
  • In groups of four, discuss
  • education
  • training
  • indoctrination
  • socialization
  • focusing on the primary differences between these
    concepts.

42
What is Education?
  • Contrast education with indoctrination, training,
    and socialization.

43
Passing the Socratic baton
  • Person A questions the other three, focusing on
    the primary question
  • What is education, in contrast to indoctrination,
    training, socialization?
  • Each person asks three questions, then the person
    to the right asks three questions, etc., going
    deeper and deeper into the primary question.

44
What is Critical Thinking?
  • B Questions CA observes
  • C Questions AB observes
  • A Questions BC observes

45
Focusing on Democracy
  • Discuss with a partner your understanding of the
    concept of democracy. See if you can agree upon
    the definition. Write out your definition
    together.

46
Write Your Understanding of a Primary Concept
Democracy
  • Now following the clarification strategy, write
    your understanding of democracy.
  • Write the dictionary definition before writing
    your understanding of it.
  • State, elaborate, exemplify

47
Democracy
  • The dictionary definition of democracy is
  • In my own words, I would define democracy in the
    following way
  • In other words,
  • For example

48
Definitions of Democracy
  • Websters New World Dictionary
  • Government in which the people hold the ruling
    power either directly or through a elected
    representatives.
  • The principle of equality of rights, opportunity,
    and treatment or the practice of this principle.
  • The common people, especially as the wielders of
    political power.

49
Scholastic Childrens Dictionary
  • A way of governing a country in which the people
    choose their leaders in elections.
  • A Country that has an elected government.

50
Thorndike-Barnhart Junior Dictionary
  • Government that is run by the people who live
    under it. In a democracy, the people rule,
    either directly through meetings that all may
    attend, or indirectly, through the election of
    representatives
  • Treatment of other people as your equals.

51
Democracy
  • The dictionary definition of democracy is
  • In my own words, I would define democracy in the
    following way
  • In other words,
  • For example

52
Questions that guide our thinking about Democracy
  • Working with a partner, make a list of questions
    you might use in helping students come to
    understand the concept of democracy.

53
Questions about Democracy
  • Does a democracy depend upon the education of the
    people?
  • How well can a democracy work if the people
    within the democracy are uneducated or
    undereducated?
  • To what extent do we have a democracy versus a
    plutocracy in this country?
  • To what extent are teachers responsible for
    teaching students to think through important
    ideas like democracy?

54
Using your list of questions focused on
democracy
  • In groups of 4
  • C questions A and B, D observes.
  • A questions C and D, B observes.
  • B questions C and B, A observes.
  • D questions B and A, C observes

55
Write Your Understanding of an Important Concept
You teach
  • Now following the clarification pattern, write
    your understanding of one of the important
    concepts you teach.
  • State your understanding.
  • Elaborate your understanding.
  • Exemplify the concept in a real life situation.

56
Questions that open up a significant concept
  • Make a list of questions you might use in helping
    students come to understand the concept you have
    elaborated.

57
Focusing on your important concept, lead a
Socratic dialog
  • B Questions CA observes
  • C Questions AB observes
  • A Questions BC observes

58
What is democracy? What is the essence of
democracy? What is the purpose of democracy?
  • B Questions CA observes
  • C Questions AB observes
  • A Questions BC observes

59
Elements wheel
A CRITICAL THINKER
Considers the
Elements of Thought
Purpose of the
Points of View
Thinking
Frame of Reference
Perspective
Goal, objective
Orientation
Implications
Questions at
Consequences
Issue
Elements
Problem
of
Assumptions
Thought
Information
Presuppositions,
Data, observations,
taking for granted
facts, experiences
Concepts
Interpretation
Theories, laws,
Inference
models,
defini
-
Conclusions,
tions
, principles
solutions
60
Understanding Key Concepts Through Questions
  • To understand any concept well you must
    understand its opposite. Take, for example, the
    concept of cooperation. To understand when we
    should not cooperate is as important as
    understanding when we should cooperate, if we are
    to grasp the conceptual meaning of cooperation.
    Yet too often children are simply told to
    cooperate, as if cooperation were always
    desirable. Through a Socratic dialog, we can
    help students begin to think critically about
    this concept.

61
Your Socratic dialogue might look something like
this
  • What does it mean to cooperate?
  • Can you think of a time when you cooperated?
    Explain.
  • Can any one else think of a time when you
    cooperated?
  • Should you cooperate with your parents? If so,
    why?
  • Should you cooperate with your teachers? If so,
    why?
  • Should you cooperate with your friends? If so,
    why?

62
  • Should you always cooperate?
  • When should you?
  • When should you not?
  • When people want you to go along with something
    that you think is wrong, should you cooperate?
    What if people call you names if you refuse to
    cooperate, should you cooperate then?
  • What would the world be like if no one ever
    cooperated with each other?
  • What would it be like if everyone always
    cooperated?

63
Or you might focus on a concept like language
  • What is language?
  • Can people communicate with each other when they
    dont understand each others language?
  • What is the purpose of language?
  • What are words?
  • Can we use our words to hurt people? To help
    people?
  • What would it be like if we didnt have words?
  • Would life have meaning without words?

64
Focusing on the concept of friend
  • What does it mean to be a friend?
  • How do you know when someone is your friend?
  • Can someone be nice to you and not be your
    friend?
  • Can someone tell you things you might not want to
    hear and still be your friend?
  • Is it possible for someone to not play with you
    and still be your friend?
  • What is the difference between a friend and a
    classmate?
  • Can your parent be your friend?

65
  • Is it important to have friends?
  • If someone is not your friend, how should you
    treat her/him?
  • Is it possible to be friendless?
  • How would you feel if you were friendless?
  • Have you ever refused to be someones friend when
    s/he wanted you to be?
  • What is the difference between a friend and an
    enemy?
  • Is it possible for someone to try to injure you
    and still be your friend?

66
Focusing on the concept of science
  • What are the kinds of things that scientists do?
  • Why is science important?
  • What are some of the most basic assumptions
    scientists ask?
  • What have we figured out using science?
  • What are some things we should be able to figure
    out using science?

67
  • How is science different from other fields of
    study?
  • What are some of the branches of science?
  • How would our lives be different if we didnt
    have science, or if no one thought
    scientifically?
  • What are some of the limitations of science?
  • Can science solve all our problems?

68
Websters New World Dictionarytrain
  • to form by instruction, discipline, or drill, to
    teach so as to make fit, qualified, or
    proficient.
  • Training School a school preparing students for
    a particular occupation.

69
Indoctrinate
  • to imbue with a (usually) partisan or sectarian
    opinion, point of view, or principle. partisan a
    firm adherent to a party, faction, cause or
    person, especially one exhibiting blind,
    prejudiced and unreasoning allegiance. sectarian
    (1) of, relating to or characteristic of a sect,
    or sectarian, limited in character or scope.
    sectarian (2) a narrow or bigoted person. sect
    a dissenting religious body, especially one
    regarded as extreme or heretical, a religious
    denomination, a group adhering to a distinctive
    doctrine or to a leader

70
socialize
  • to adapt to social needs or uses, to fit or train
    for a social environment. social of or relating
    to human society, the interaction of the
    individual and the group, or the welfare of human
    beings as members of society. society an
    enduring and cooperating social group whose
    members have developed organized patterns of
    relationships through interaction with one
    another.

71
educate
  • to develop mentally, morally, or aesthetically
    especially by instruction. mental of or relating
    to the total emotional and intellectual response
    of an individual to his environment. moral of or
    relating to principles of right and wrong in
    behavior. aesthetics a branch of philosophy
    dealing with the nature of beauty, art and taste.

72
Identifying Prior Questions
  • Read page 17-18 Socratic Questioning Guide.
    Discuss with a partner.
  • Now choose one question on your list. Working
    alone, make a list of questions one would have to
    answer before answering the original question.

73
Fostering Students Abilities to Reason Through
Complex Interdisciplinary Questions
  • Make a list of interdisciplinary questions you
    might have students reason through, questions
    which include a dimension within your discipline,
    as well as dimensions within other disciplines.

74
Identifying Domains Within Complex Questions
  • Now choose one question from your list. Write
    out the domains embedded in the question and some
    important questions within each domain one would
    have to reason through before attempting to
    answer the question. You should focus on a
    question you would want students to be able to
    reason through.
  • Refer to pages 17-18 Essential Questions Guide.

75
Choose one of your questions
  • Discuss with your partner
  • What domains are inherent in your questions?
  • What are some of the questions you would have to
    answer before you answered the complex question?

76
Focusing on a key concept
  • Explain in writing one powerful concept you
    teach.
  • State, elaborate, exemplify
  • Then make a list of questions you can ask in a
    Socratic dialogue to help students understand the
    concept and begin to construct it in their
    thinking.

77
Focusing on a key concept in your course
  • C Questions AB observes
  • A Questions BC observes

78
What is the single most significant barrier to
fostering critical thinking in our schools?
  • Each person asks three questions.
  • Person C begins. Then move to the person on your
    right.
  • The person on the left of the questioner counts
    the number of questions.

79
Passing the Socratic baton
  • Person A questions the other three, focusing on
    the primary question
  • What is the single most significant barrier to
    bringing critical thinking into the classroom?
  • Each person asks three questions, then the person
    to the right asks three questions, etc., going
    deeper and deeper into the primary question.

80
Conceptual tools that critical thinking brings to
Socratic questioning
  1. Analyzing thought (focusing on the parts of
    thinking)
  2. Assessing thought (focusing on standards for
    thinking)
  3. Analyzing questions by system (distinguishing
    between questions of preference, fact and
    judgment)
  4. Developing prior questions (focusing on questions
    we would need to answer before we could answer a
    more complex question)
  5. Identifying domains within complex questions
    (focusing on questions we would need to answer
    within different subject areas or disciplines to
    adequately address a complex issue)

81
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