Socratic questioning and discussion
What is the Socratic technique?
Socratic discussion is based on the way Socrates led learning activities in ancient Greece. All his pupils were expected share their thoughts and opinions regarding the written and spoken word. Socrates did not take part in the discussions, so that pupils would feel free to speak without being inhibited by him.
Socratic questioning fosters critical thinking, evaluation, and knowledge application in pupils. It is a simple, yet strong method for exploring ideas or statements in depth and breadth. Socratic questioning aims to elicit understanding, to explore argument and to develop the ability of a whole group to engage with a key task or question. For this reason it is often used to explore the big ideas in a subject or topic but is also equally useful in helping to provide a bridge between talk and writing.
The Socratic technique involves:
· Critical examination of support, reasons, evidence, and assumptions related to the central statement
· Developing and critically examining the implications and consequences of statements and arguments
· Seeking and fairly examining conflicting views
Socratic discussion
There are a variety of different forms that Socratic discussion can take, but there are common elements in each approach:
1. An inner and outer circle. Pupil in the inner circle participate directly; those in the outer circle observe, often looking at specific features of the discussion
2. An opening or big question, followed by exploration and clarification of the issues
3. An extended dialogue
4. A plenary in which all participants reflect on the dialogue
5. Questioning and dialogue for specific purposes
The discussion focus
Socratic discussion involves preparation around questions and guided by a core text and/or other source material that provide a rich source of stimuli for engagement with the issues.
The opening question should have no right answer. Allow for:
· A broad and sometimes provocative discussion
· Exploration and clarification of the issues involved – a good big question leads to lots of useful little questions
· A variety of interpretations
· Different access points in terms of levels of engagement and viewpoints
· Potential for independent thought, research and discussion
· Opportunities for agreement and disagreement
· Exploration of complexities, ambiguities, contradictions, misconceptions and mysteries
· Development of a wider perspective – on a subject, or making links between subjects
· The recall, interpretation and active use of prior learning and knowledge
Source materials
Source materials can be one or combinations of the following:
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· an open-ended question
· a provocative statement
· pupils’ own research which allows them to bring individual evidence to the conversation
· a selected passage of text or a poem
· play or screenplay
· painting
· speech or transcript
· story or other narrative
· editorial items and commentaries
· film – whole film, scene(s) or screen shots
· cartoons
· music and song
· essays or learners’ own responses to questions
· web-based material
· historical artefacts
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Pupils will be expected to support their ideas with evidence, making reference to and quoting from the texts/materials/ideas they have formulated as part of the discussion.
Expanding on a big question
Here is an example of questions that might drop out of the big question what is science?
1. What is science?
2. What do scientists do and write about?
3. What is the nature of scientific method?
4. Is it possible to include all of science in a science book?
5. How many of the events over time are left out in giving an account of that science concepts development?
6. Is more left out than is included?
7. How does a scientist know what to emphasize or focus on?
8. Do scientists make value judgments in deciding what to include and what to leave out?
9. Is it possible to simply list facts in a science book or does all science writing involve interpretations as well as facts?
10. Is it possible to decide what to include and exclude and how to interpret facts without adopting a scientific point of view?
11. How can we begin to judge a scientific interpretation?
12. How can we begin to judge a scientific point of view?
Developing Socratic discussion skills
Socratic dialogue involves asking specific types of questions. It is not just about being open-ended. Most pupils will need support and practice to become confident users of the approach. With practice pupils will begin to see how Socratic discussion differs from other forms of classroom talk and that it takes time to develop the skills to able to engage in the dialogue.
A number of different frameworks can be used to support the generation of questions. Examples of these could include:
· 8Q, which encourages thinking around specific stems. Who? What? Why? When? Where? How? Could? Should?
· Bloom’s or other taxonomies, which prompt higher order questioning
· Big question, little questions, where? Start from a big question. Identify the little questions that help us to answer it. Where might we find the answers to each of these little questions?
· Prompts and crib sheets, such as the Socratic questioning bookmark or higher order thinking mat
Supporting language
You may also wish to use the discussion to develop specific language functions. Socratic discussion provides opportunities for pupils to demonstrate use of:
· connectives, discourse markers
· tenses, particularly the conditional
· formal vocabulary, including command words
· content vocabulary and terminology
However, in most cases this would be developed through the observations of the outer circle some of whose observation prompts may involve language.
Running the session
1) Preparation. Pupils work in groups to prepare their thoughts, using the stimulus material. They may:
· think of and respond to possible questions and prepare their thoughts and arguments together
· identify evidence that they may use from the source materials to support the ideas they wish to explore
2) Assigning roles:
· Inner circle. A pupil from each group is nominated to represent the group in discussion – either chosen by the group, the teacher or the chair/leader. These pupils join the inner circle
· Outer circle. the pupils in the outer circle are given specific prompts in order to support their observation of the discussion (see below)
3) The initial conversation. The leader states the opening question or statement and the inner circle work to establish a shared understanding of the scope and meaning of the discussion (this stage will take up to 5 minutes)
4) The core discussion. This is the heart of the session and involves the exploration of the key issues and questions. The leader should try to ensure that all pupils take part and that participants try to encourage each other to develop themes and ideas supported by evidence from the source material. The leader should try to avoid judging contributions, but may need to step in to keep the conversation on track. (At least 10 minutes)
5) Preparing feedback. At the end of the discussion the:
· inner circle have a chance to work as a group to review their performance
· outer circle who share the same observation prompts get together in groups to prepare feedback on their observations to the class. (up to 5 minutes)
6) Plenary. Pupils from the outer circle feed back their observations to the group. The inner circle may respond to the points raised, but this may not be necessary. In addition the leader or teacher may summarise the responses the original question, or sometimes:
· pose a slightly different question to finish the discussion with new thinking
· collect interesting questions which have arisen from the discussion.
Observation prompts
Active listening, observation and feedback from observers in the outer circle can help to make Socratic discussion a very effective talk tool. Below are prompts that can be adapted to suit most discussions. There is no need to use them all for a single discussion and what the outer circle are asked to do will depend on the age, experience and ability of the pupils. Some prompts are more challenging than others - the choice of who gets what question is important to a successful outcome.
You may also wish to add some questions that relate to the topic/context for the discussion.
1. Does anyone try to dominate the discussion. How do they do this? How do others respond?
2. Make a note of the language speakers use that demonstrates confidence and certainty.
3. Make a note of the main points made during the discussion. What do the inner circle think are the main points?
4. Make a note of the language speakers use that helps the discussion to develop. What kind of things do they say?
5. Make a note of the extent to which the whole group contributes. When do they do this? Which people are left out of the discussion? What are they doing when everyone else is talking?
6. Select an individual and make a note of how they influence the group. What kind of things do they say to influence them?
7. Make a note of language that speaker(s) use that is hesitant or shows exploratory thinking. What kind of things do they say?
8. Make a note of the language speaker(s) use that stops the discussion developing. How does this happen?
9. Make a note of who invites others to speak. How do they do this?
10. Make a note of who supports what a previous speaker has said. How do they do this?
11. Make a note of who invites others to speak. What kind of things do they say?
12. Make a note of examples of literary language that speakers use, e.g.: metaphor; simile; imagery; idiom; slang
13. Make a note of comments that show a good understanding of INSERT HERE.
14. Make a note of time when speakers use humour. How does this help the discussion?
15. Make a note of something unexpected and interesting that is said. How did this affect the discussion? How was it useful?
16. Notice how people disagree with each other and how they put forward a good counter argument. Note down two or three examples.
17. Listen out for some key words: INSERT HERE. How were they used during the discussion?
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