What is a socratic seminar?
Socratic seminar is a type of formal group discussion based on learning and teaching methods used by Socrates, an ancient Greek philosopher that often attributes to the establishment of Western philosophy. While most classes are based on lectures intended for direct transfer of information from the teacher to the student, the Socratic seminar is based on a question and discussion. Socrates claimed to be more effective to help students think of themselves than to simply provide information. The Socratic seminar is therefore intended as a discussion of a particular topic among all present than the situation in which one teacher provides information to students.
In most cases, the socratic seminar is focused on discussion about text, such as a book or essay. All participants at the seminar have read the text in advance and come to the seminar prepared to discuss their thoughts on this topic. Such seminars often take place in the classroom, so the teacher often pisses them to discuss. However, this leadership should not be in the form of a lecture -The teacher's responsibility is merely to lead to the discussion to important topics and to ensure that those who have involved in the discussion are fair to each other. Some teachers give their students a discussion about questions before the Socratic seminar to help lead and focus discussion.
The purpose of the Socratic Seminar is not only to ensure that students understand literal aspects of the text. Many texts in literature and philosophy are dealing with very complex problems that simple understanding of words on the page is not fully solved. Texts used on a sokratic seminar are only used as a basis for a group discussion on presented issues. Discussion on these issues, especially if controversy occurs, requires intensive thinking and critical thinking of the glassmine. Frequent participation in such seminars greatly helps students to develop the skills of thinking that can be useful in many different parts of life.
some topics,Such as philosophy, sociology and literature, are more compatible with the idea of a sokratic seminar than other, such as chemistry and mathematics. In particular, science requires students to learn a large amount of information that cannot be easily obtained through discussion. Many topics in humanities, on the other hand, are based primarily on human reason and in elements of shared human experience. In accordance with this, a discussion between a group of people with different opinions and experience can lead to very interesting and bright opinions on addressed topics.