“Socratic Circles” – AIS English Conference 2011 (Dougal Parsons)
Please note:
My presentation was a ‘prezi’ and cannot be sent or viewed (unless I’m signed in), but for those participants wondering what I had used to create the presentation the website may be of use to you.
The major resource for my workshop notes and ideas was the book Socratic Circles by Matt Copeland. Most parts of it are viewable at ‘Google Books’
From Copeland’s text: “Socratic circles turn partial classroom control, classroom direction, and classroom governance over to students by creating a truly equitable learning community where the weight and value of student voices and teacher voices are indistinguishable from each other. … Socratic circles change the ways individuals read, think, discuss, write and act: they have the power to change a student’s perspective on living, learning, and behaving. Critical reading, critical thinking, discussion skills, listening skills, team-building skills, vocabulary improvement, and student ownership, voice, and empowerment are all valid reasons for including Socratic circles in the classroom.”
In terms of pedagogical philosophy this equals: collaborative; student-centred; constructivist.
This opposes the view of didactic, teacher-centred, singular processes of learning.
And Copeland states that “The result was a group of students with a deep understanding of a selection of text, improved skills in comprehension, vocabulary, listening, speaking, and critical thinking.”
It moves away from an obsession with answers and places focus on the generative power of questioning: “Questions define tasks, express problems, and delineate issues. Answers on the other hand often signal a full-stop in thought. Only when an answer generates a further question does thought continue its life as such.” … “all ideas can be further developed and better explained, and that questioning helps us explore these realities” … “Socratic questioning is a systematic process for examining the ideas, questions, and answers that form the basis of human belief. In involves recognising that all new understanding is linked to prior understanding.”
How powerful it is then, when these ‘questions’ and subsequent answers and further questions, are generated exclusively by the students.
How powerful, also, it would be if students could also monitor the effectiveness of each other’s discussions and hence provide valuable feedback concerning the process of gaining greater depth of knowledge.
The physical set-up:
How it works:
- Before the scheduled Socratic Circle activity a short passage of text is distributed to students.
- Students spend individual time reading, analysing and creating their own notes on the text.
- During the scheduled class, students are randomly divided into equal groups of concentric circles: an inner circle and an outer circle.
- The inner circle engages in discussion for a set time (usually 10 minutes). During this time the outer circle is to silently observe the discussion and take notes.
- After this, the outer circle responds to the inner circle’s discussion by affirming points raised and providing feedback on the quality of the discussion and what could have potentially improved it. The inner circle are silent during this time (usually 5-8 minutes)
- Students in the inner and outer circles now exchange roles and positions.
- The inner circle now holds a discussion to be followed by the outer circle’s discussion / feedback.
Students in the outer circle respond to the inner circle’s discussion. The content of the ‘outer discussion’ is responsive to the preceding ‘inner discussion’. Examples include praise for insights (“I thought Sonia’s point about the symbol of darkness in the poem was excellent…”), evaluation of the group discussion dynamic (“It might have helped if students had not talked over the top of each other…”), response to discussion content (“I think the point on ‘poetic form’ that Jacinta raised needed to be discussed further…”). The only rule of ‘outer discussion’ is that comments must be constructive.
Common text – It’s important that the discussion is based on text that is familiar to all students. Antecedent learning involves students reading / viewing (and potentially responding to) a text. Preparation for discussion is integral to effective learning during the ‘circle’ discussions. An obvious strength of this is that the requirement for all students to contribute in discussion acts as a gentle extrinsic motivator for learning.
Discussion Time for Inner circle: Up to the teacher; 10 minutes is advised.
Discussion Time for Outer circle: Up to the teacher; 4-5 minutes is advised.
The discussion can serve as a learning tool in a variety of ways. Examples include: an introductory discussion / brainstorming; a formative exercise that leads into writing; a summative exercise in which students discuss what they have written. I think it’s important to have students writing either before or after the Socratic discussions, or both.
Questions? Feedback? Discussion?