A VERY Brief look at Socratic Questioning

Socratic questioning is disciplined questioning that can be used to pursue thought in many directions and for many purposes, including: 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 don't know, to follow out logical implications of thought, or to control the discussion. The key to distinguishing Socratic questioning from questioning per se is that Socratic questioning is systematic, disciplined, and deep, and usually focuses on fundamental concepts, principles, theories, issues, or problems.

Socratic questioning is referred to in teaching, and has gained currency as a concept in education particularly in the past two decades. Teachers, students, or indeed anyone interested in probing thinking at a deep level can and should construct Socratic questions and engage in these questions.

When teachers use Socratic questioning in teaching, their purpose may be to probe student thinking, to determine the extent of student knowledge on a given topic, issue or subject, to model Socratic questioning for students, or to help students analyze a concept or line of reasoning. It is suggested that students should 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, and in following-out the implications of what they, and others think.

In teaching, teachers can use Socratic questioning for at least two purposes:

• To deeply probe student thinking, to help students begin to distinguish what they know or understand from what they do not know or understand (and to help them develop intellectual humility in the process).

• To foster students' abilities to ask Socratic questions, to help students acquire the powerful tools of Socratic dialogue, so that they can use these tools in everyday life (in questioning themselves and others). To this end, teachers can model the questioning strategies they want students to emulate and employ. Moreover, teachers need to directly teach students how to construct and ask deep questions. Beyond that, students need practice to improve their questioning abilities.

Socratic questioning illuminates the importance of questioning in learning (indeed Socrates himself thought that questioning was the only defensible form of teaching). It illuminates the difference between systematic and fragmented thinking. It teaches us to dig beneath the surface of our ideas. It teaches us the value of developing questioning minds in cultivating deep learning.

The art of Socratic questioning is intimately connected with critical thinking because the art of questioning is important to excellence of thought. What the word "Socratic" adds to the art of questioning is systematicity, depth, and an abiding interest in assessing the truth or plausibility of things.

Both critical thinking and Socratic questioning share a common end. Critical thinking provides the conceptual tools for understanding how the mind functions in its pursuit of meaning and truth; Socratic questioning employs those tools in framing questions essential to the pursuit of meaning and truth.

The goal of critical thinking is to establish an additional level of thinking to our thinking, a powerful inner voice of reason, that monitors, assesses, and reconstitutes—in a more rational direction—our thinking, feeling, and action. Socratic discussion cultivates that inner voice through an explicit focus on self-directed, disciplined questioning.

The Six Types of Socratic Questions

Due to the rapid addition of new information and the advancement of science and technology that occur almost daily, an engineer must constantly expand his or her horizons beyond simple gathering information and relying on the basic engineering principles.

A number of homework problems have been included that are designed to enhance critical thinking skills. Critical thinking is the process we use to reflect on, access and judge the assumptions underlying our own and others ideas and actions.

Socratic questioning is at the heart of critical thinking and a number of homework problems draw from R.W. Paul's six types of Socratic questions:

1. Questions for clarification: • Why do you say that? • How does this relate to our discussion? • "Are you going to include diffusion in your mole

balance equations?"

2. Questions that probe assumptions:

• What could we assume instead? • How can you verify or disapprove that assumption? • "Why are neglecting radial diffusion and including

only axial diffusion?"

3. Questions that probe reasons and evidence:

• What would be an example? • What is....analogous to? • What do you think causes to happen...? Why:? • "Do you think that diffusion is responsible for the

lower conversion?"

4. Questions about Viewpoints and Perspectives:

• What would be an alternative? • What is another way to look at it? • Would you explain why it is necessary or beneficial,

and who benefits? • Why is the best? • What are the strengths and weaknesses of...? • How are...and ...similar? • What is a counterargument for...? • "With all the bends in the pipe, from an

industrial/practical standpoint, do you think diffusion will affect the conversion?"

5. Questions that probe implications and consequences:

• What generalizations can you make? • What are the consequences of that assumption? • What are you implying? • How does...affect...? • How does...tie in with what we learned before? • "How would our results be affected if neglected

diffusion?"

6. Questions about the question: • What was the point of this question? • Why do you think I asked this question? • What does...mean? • How does...apply to everyday life? • "Why do you think diffusion is important?" cru,

Culled from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_questioning http://www.engin.umich.edu/~cre/probsolv/strategy/cthinking.htm http://www.criticalthinking.org/TGS_files/SocraticQuestioning2006.pdf