I will continue to discuss this method is really fascinating, I read in the book Socratic Seminar Manual published by Four Winds and whose authors are Alejandra Eyzaguirre, Mercedes Hurtado, Veronica Merino, Fluff Orellana and Magdalena Road: The Socratic practice involves deep exploration of ideas through dialogue, from the reading and analysis of a given text.
The dialogue that occurs between students, where the teacher is a mediator that promotes dialogue, is a richness that is achieved not only deepen the texts discussed, but often it is possible to establish valuable connections with other texts and, most importantly, with personal experiences of students, which provides a high significance to learning.
In the United States, where the method has been developed and studied more, it has been found that the application provides significant gains to the task of teaching. All analyzes point and highlight the fact that, due to the absence of the rating review, the method does not generate risk or equivocation by children and young people and also give them a high value on that learning is achieved through their own collective opinions. If you compare the retention rates of common practice with lectures on using the Socratic method, receptivity climbs from 30% average in the first, as a stop, to between 50-90% on average in the second .
How do you achieve this miracle?
We have identified three causal axes:
- The formation of a kind of community of learners, where each member contributes something to the common knowledge, each taking responsibility and the need to continue being part of it through the ideas, generating a proactive attitude towards the study.
- The connection that offers high Socratic seminar with their own experiences and the opportunity to go providing, through dialogue, multiple connections and relationships.
- The development of the four domains of communication: reading (text), writing (the task before or after), talk (comment) and listen (the opinions of others), which is shaping a style, a method and learning same in each student.
To the above, it should be noted other advantages that make a true delight pedagogical method:
- Better perception of the quality of teachers, students perceived better explanations and content.
- Better climate inside the classroom.
- Best Student self-image to be highly satisfied with their participation.
- Higher levels of assertiveness and safety, especially if there are students who are usually isolated.
- Improvements in the interrelationships between students.
- Increased acceptance of internal regulations of each school (the method requires respect to certain practical rules that ensure respect for every member of the seminar).
As can be seen, the Socratic practice used to its fullest in our schools can be a great addition, and although some people look like I’m forcing the facts, insist that the method is a fundamental contribution in any model of entrepreneurship education, because promotes communication skills so necessary in this highly technological century, globalized and hyperlinked offered us the Knowledge Society. In an upcoming article we discuss three actual experiences of its application.