Dan Friedman books The little lisper/schemer, The reasoned schemer etc all follow this kind of questioning dialog.
It's a bit annoying at times, but it really drives the point at the end.
The method should be used more often.
Socratic method to teaching by asking
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Re: Socratic method to teaching by asking
#12I really like the Socratic method as it resonates with the way my brain processes information and I think it's effective to hopefully get people to think for themselves.
But it's not a silver bullet. I've recognized that there's times you just need to dictate information and hope the receiver catches it. I find myself needing information in this form sometimes. Literally just tell me the stuff and I'll learn it this way.
I've also noticed this pattern with my children. I ask questions to get them thinking for themselves and hopefully discover their own answer but alas, it doesn't always work. Maybe they are still too young but I don't really know. So I then resort to just dictating the information and that works too.
Re: Socratic method to teaching by asking
#13There’s a classic book called The Goal [1] which is an outstanding example of teaching using the Socratic method. The basic lessons of the book can also change the way you think about business in general and software engineering in particular, as a bonus. One important concept for example is to liken unreleased software to a big pile of inventory in a warehouse: the inventory doesn’t do the company any good until it…
i just learned about the goal a few days ago. there's also a graphic novel version of the book: the goal: a business graphic novel
https://www.amazon.com/Goal-Business-Graphic-Novel/dp/088427...
Re: Socratic method to teaching by asking
#14If you're Dad, dumb questions are the only way to get a word in edgewise.
They definitely do not want your input, they don't want your experience, or any of your thoughts or reflections... but it can be surprisingly effective to just ask dumb questions.
Isn't official title "facilitator"? :)
Re: Socratic method to teaching by asking
#15Dan Friedman books The little lisper/schemer, The reasoned schemer etc all follow this kind of questioning dialog. It's a bit annoying at times, but it really drives the point at the end. The method should be used more often.
When I looked into them, I did not find these books were Socratic/Inquiry-based. My perception is that a typical question-answer would not be of the kind I see in such a classroom.
In a classroom I might ask "What should be the precedence among these arithmetic operators?" Then there would be some discussion, leading eventually to a sensible answer.
But in the little books (I don't have one to hand so I'm making this up) a question would be more along the line of "What is a frame?" This would be the first question in the section introducing the topic. There is no way students could answer that, or ask it.
That is, what I find compelling about this way of instruction is that it leads students to the point. It is as if they discovered it themselves, in a way. (It is sometimes called Discovery method.) They see the wrong stuff as well as the right and that gives a better understanding of why right is right.
I don't know how Prof Friedman handles it in class. Possibly the in-person process is quite different than I felt reading the book. But reading the book I just felt it was a tortured way of telling me the facts.
Re: Socratic method to teaching by asking
#16People on HN are often interested in Math and in education. I'll mention the Journal of Inquiry-Based Learning in Mathematics http://www.jiblm.org/.
(Just from my personal experience: I teach the Intro to Proofs course in this way, and use a book on proofs that I wrote in this style http://joshua.smcvt.edu/proofs. It has a lot of advantages. One is that at the end of the semester everyone, even those on the lower half of the bell curve, is still highly involved and understanding everything that is happening. That's important to me; for instance some of the folks in the room will go on to be teachers, either in high school or in elementary school.)
Re: Socratic method to teaching by asking
#17I was a graduate student advised by a dedicated practitioner of the Socratic method. My experience showed me that this method is incredibly powerful, both to teach students to think, and later as an educator in our research lab, as a method for honing my own understanding. However... there is a lot of effort that must be put into the style of its application. My mentor didn't know when to turn it off, and never seeme…
how would one go about learning this effectively?
Re: Socratic method to teaching by asking
#18I was a graduate student advised by a dedicated practitioner of the Socratic method. My experience showed me that this method is incredibly powerful, both to teach students to think, and later as an educator in our research lab, as a method for honing my own understanding. However... there is a lot of effort that must be put into the style of its application. My mentor didn't know when to turn it off, and never seeme…
What sorts of questions do you ask that lead you to come off as superior? How have you changed your approach to avoid putting off your students?
Re: Socratic method to teaching by asking
#19Slightly off topic, but when a page with minimal styling like this comes by, how do you typically view it?
I usually do something like this in the inspector:
body{
width: 601px;
margin: auto;
font-size: 1.3em;
color: #483f3f;
line-height: 1.5em;
}
I'm not against un-styled websites at all, but I wish they were more readable by default.
Re: Socratic method to teaching by asking
#20I use this with my kid - she asks me a question and I often ask her the same question to see what she would think or even guess before I tell her the real answer. It's a great way to also develop verbal skills as well not just reasoning I noticed. Gradually through some new words and concepts at her.
But I went to far, now she caught on and is doing the same to me. "Have you done you homework?", "Maybe, what do you think Daddy?"