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By the Curriculum Planning and Development Division |
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Socratic questioning is useful in correcting misconceptions
and leads to reliable knowledge construction. It suits the present
social landscape which emphasises intellectual development,
over information building in education. The educational movements
in “thinking skills” and “critical thinking” are prevalent in
education systems around the world, including Singapore. The
aim of these movements is to develop learners into better thinkers.
The quality of that thinking though, varies. If it is possible
to systematically develop the quality of thinking in our students
at various levels as these recent movements seem to suggest,
it is almost negligent for teachers not to do this at various
levels and in different subjects.
| Thus, asking questions serves many purposes;
it |
| • |
Exposes our ignorance about things
we thought we knew, |
| • |
Arouses interest about
things around us that we may have taken for granted, |
| • |
Stimulates students’ curiosity
about complex everyday issues. |
| Socratic questioning can be summarised as
follows: |
| a |
Knowledge can be pursued and will
lead to an understanding of what is true. |
| b |
The pursuit of true knowledge
is a collaborative process and can be achieved through
dialogue. |
| c |
Questioning is the purest
form of education, drawing out true knowledge from within,
and not imposing knowledge from the outside. |
| d |
The pursuit of knowledge
must be rigorous and honest. |
The teacher could conduct Socratic questioning with students
on topics in various subject areas like “How do you think the
world started?” or “Why is stealing wrong?” The teacher should
explain the process of the questioning to the class at the end
of the exercise.
Dr Richard Paul, Videos on ‘How to teach through Socratic Questioning’
, Foundation for Critical Thinking.
Robert Fisher, ‘Teaching Thinking: Philosophic Enquiry in the
Classroom’.
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