November 22nd, 2007“Ask…Don’t Tell:” How You Can Use Socratic Dialogue in Your Home School
Socratic Dialogue refers to a method of classical home education that was first recorded in ancient Greece by Plato. In two of his more famous works, The Republic and The Apology, Plato records the conversations between the teacher, Socrates, and a variety of students. Although not immediately apparent, these conversations represented a method of inquiry in which an abstract moral concept such as justice, temperance, or virtue was examined through the process of asking questions. In effect, the master Socrates taught the pupil a concept by asking instead of telling.
So, how do you use Socratic Dialogue in your own home school? Well, the parent decides what concept he or she wants to explore and plans a series of specific questions that will eventually eliminate contradictions and reveal underlying beliefs. The questions are intended to…
(Continue reading the article at Ezine Articles, and be sure to vote (with the STARS) if you like it. Thanks!)
February 28th, 2008 at 11:03 am
[...] you’ve read my post on Socratic Dialogue, you know that asking questions is the way classical homeschoolers teach. Don’t tell them [...]
March 11th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
[...] the content is taught. The trivium and quadrivium provide structure for organizing content while Socratic dialogue and inductive reasoning provide the tools by which to understand the [...]
March 16th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
[...] If you’d like to know more about how to use the Socratic method, read my article entitled “Ask. Don’t Tell.” In my next post, I’ll share 10 traits of critical [...]