Question

"SOCRATIC METHOD" (ANALYSIS):

1. The Socratic teacher loves to discover his/her own mistakes. The discovery of error in one’s thinking is a joyful moment for the Socratic thinker. The ability to transform what is usually a moment of embarrassment into a joyful experience is, for me, one of the primary strengths of the Socratic Method.
2. At the same time, what I am most impressed with is psychological tactfulness, that is, Socrates’ ability to quickly identify what drives his interlocutor, and how to package his message in a way that resonates with his interlocutor. Socratic tactfulness is something that I have been trying to integrate into my framework: when I interact with students I try to tailor the content to the individual student and their interests. Psychological tactfulness requires a great deal of experience and I hope to one day develop a level of tactfulness that is similar to Socrates.

QUESTION (JOURNAL PROMPT):

1. What's your initial impression of the “Socratic Method”?
2. What do you consider to be the strength of the Method?
3. How do you think you might integrate the method into your own framework, your own way of thinking and acting in the world?

Answer 1

1. The Socratic method for me is " A JOURNEY FROM SENSITIVITY TO CREATIVITY."

2. As a human being, we must be sensitive enough to realise our own mistakes and this realisation should not be painful but joyful.

3. More freedom, experimentation and room to go for trial and error method is endowed by Socratic method. It matches to the stormy monk Vivekananda's definition of education- "Education is the manifestation of perfection already in man."

4. Gradually this method can become part of the day to day life, not only formal teaching- learning processes but routine small but significant actions in the day of 24 hours.

5. Moreover, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication and the Socratic method is simple, feasible and useful enough to simplify the already complicated fcets of the life.