Rick Reis, manager of the valuable "Tomorrow's Professor (TP) Mailing
List" <http://ctl.stanford.edu/Tomprof/postings.html> has recently
posted Stanford political science professor Rob Reich's
<http://www.stanford.edu/~reich/> take on the "Socratic Method" in TP
Msg. #810 "The Socratic Method: What it is and How to Use it in the
Classroom."
According to Reich, among the "essential components of the Socratic
Method" is: "The Socratic method focuses on moral education, on how
one ought to live."
Following the lead of the late Arnold Arons (1997), I have employed
what Arons and I call the "Socratic Method" in physics education for
many years as indicated in "Socratic pedagogy in the introductory
physics lab" [Hake (1992)]. This physics education version of the
"Socratic Method" has little to do with moral education in the usual
sense.
And yet the late Gregory Vlastos (1990) wrote to me "Though Socrates
was not engaged in physical inquiry, your program . . . . . "Socratic
pedagogy in the introductory physics lab" [Hake (1992)]. . . . . is
entirely in his spirit."
Is it possible that Vlastos, Arons, and I do not understand the
meaning of the "Socratic Method"?
For further discussion see e.g., my recent discussion-list post "The
Socratic Method of the Historical Socrates, Plato's Socrates, and the
Law School's Socrates" [Hake (2007)].
REFERENCES
Arons, A.B. 1997. "Teaching Introductory Physics." Wiley. Amazon.com
information at <http://tinyurl.com/3cqlnf>. Note the "Search inside
this book" feature.
Hake, R.R. 2007. "The Socratic Method of the Historical Socrates,
Plato's Socrates, and the Law School's Socrates," online at
<http://listserv.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0706&L=pod&O=D&P=14323>.
Post of 21 Jun 2007-0700 to AERA-J, AERA-L, AP-Physics, AP-Biology,
ASSESS, Biopi-L, Biolab (rejected), Chemed-L, EdResMeth, EvalTalk,
Phys-L, PhysLrnR, Physhare, POD, STLHE-L, and TIPS.
Vlastos, G. 1990. Private communication to R.R.Hake, September 17.
See also Vlastos (1991, 1994).
Vlastos, G. 1991. "Socrates, Ironist and Moral Philosopher." Cornell
Univ. Press and Cambridge University Press, esp. Chap. 2, "Socrates
contra Socrates in Plato." Cambridge University Press information is
at
<http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521314503>: