Workshop: Introduction to Socratic Teaching GREATER ESSEX COUNTY - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Workshop: Introduction to Socratic Teaching GREATER ESSEX COUNTY DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD Essex Civic Center, Ontario, Canada As civilized human beings, we are the inheritors, neither of an inquiry about ourselves and the world, nor of an
― Michael Oakeshott, “The Voice of Poetry in the Conversation of Mankind”
“As civilized human beings, we are the inheritors, neither of an inquiry about ourselves and the world, nor of an accumulating body
and extended and made more articulate in the course of centuries. It is a conversation which goes on both in public and within each of
Take one minute write about a memorable conversation in which you felt very engaged… What was the context? (Where were you? What time of day was it? Who were you with?) What was engaging about the conversation? (How did you feel? Why?) Did the conversation impact you in any way? (Did you learn anything? Did it help you understand something better?) You will have two minutes, in pairs, to describe the conversation to a partner.
A paraphrase of a seminar description by Eva Brann, former dean of St. Johns College, Annapolis
Regular practice of habits of mind & interaction necessary to learn by means of Socratic Dialogue(1)
(1) Socratic Practice as a Means of Cultivating Critical Thinking Skills and Classroom Community, by Mike Strong, American Secondary Education, Vol. 23, No. 1 (1994), pp. 10-16 (2) Case Study: Socratic Practice, by MICHAEL STRONG, SEPTEMBER 11, 2012, BHL
― Alfred North Whitehead, “The Aims of Education and Other Essays”
The child should make [ideas] his own, and should understand their application here and now in the circumstances of his actual life. From the very beginning of his education, the child should experience the joy of
understanding of that stream of events which pulse through his life, which is his life.
3000 children, 9 to 10 years
around England. Participated in a year-long series of philosophy-oriented lessons The reading skills of those who took the classes improved by 4 months, and math skills by 3 months.
~Michael Strong, The Habit of Thought
Uncle Tom's Cabin , CHAPTER III., THE HUSBAND AND FATHER.
Yes, Eliza, it's all misery, misery, misery! My life is bitter as wormwood; the very life is burning out of me. I'm a poor, miserable, forlorn drudge; I shall only drag you down with me, that's all. What's the use of our trying to do anything, trying to know anything, trying to be anything? What's the use of living? I wish I was dead!" "O, now, dear George, that is really wicked! I know how you feel about losing your place in the factory, and you have a hard master; but pray be patient, and perhaps something—" "Patient!" said he, interrupting her; "haven't I been patient? Did I say a word when he came and took me away, for no earthly reason, from the place where everybody was kind to me? I'd paid him truly every cent of my earnings,—and they all say I worked well." "Well, it is dreadful," said Eliza; "but, after all, he is your master, you know." "My master! and who made him my master? That's what I think of—what right has he to me? I'm a man as much as he is. I'm a better man than he is. I know more about business than he does; I am a better manager than he is; I can read better than he can; I can write a better hand,—and I've learned it all myself, and no thanks to him,—I've learned it in spite of him; and now what right has he to make a dray-horse of me?—to take me from things I can do, and do better than he can, and put me to work that any horse can do? He tries to do it; he says he'll bring me down and humble me, and he puts me to just the ha
Ideal Text: Each word is clear, paragraph is opaque Big philosophical ideas, meaningful to students (Love, Honesty, Trust, Friendship, Excellence) Provide Scaffolding to Help Understanding: Vocabulary work Come prepared with interpretive, factual, and evaluative questions.