Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

[Phys-l] The Socratic Method: What it is and How to Use it in the Classroom



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)].

Regards,

Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
24245 Hatteras Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
<rrhake@earthlink.net>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi>


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. 1992. "Socratic pedagogy in the introductory physics lab," Phys. Teach. 30: 546-552; updated version (4/27/98) at <http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi/SocPed1.pdf> (88 kB).

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>:

Vlastos, G. 1994. "Socratic Studies," edited by Myles Burnyeat, Cambridge University Press - information at <http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521447355>.