Description:  I practically tore my hair out in trying to find a way to genuinely honor the practice of the Socratic Method in my on-line philosophy class.  I soon discovered that the solution lies in viewing the values that are fundamental to your academic discipline in non-traditional ways.

My story/challenge:Socrates

A core value in the study of philosophy is the practice of the Socratic Method, that is, the process of developing one’s thinking through the exchange of questions and ideas that are designed to intellectually challenge and push the thinker beyond her/his thinking-status quo.  The traditional approach that has been used for this practice is that of a verbal dialogue.  Needless to say, this is an effective approach when one is teaching a face-to-face class; however, how does one continue to honor the Socratic Method when one is no longer teaching in the traditional setting?

To address this question, I had to ‘re-think’ the meaning of ‘dialogue’ for the on-line environment.  Essentially, my task was to replace the traditional verbal dialogue with an on-line intellectual dialogue wherein the instructor primes the ‘conversation’ by presenting the student with course content that is paired with probing questions that the student needs to think-through on her/his own first.  The course content and probing questions are enriched and enhanced by custom-made video lessons that are designed to keep the intellectual conversation going by ‘pushing’ the student to think beyond her/his initial thoughts.  Once again, the goal here is to re-create the ‘setting’ in which the student’s thinking is accessed, challenged and moved beyond its current state.  The video lessons that accompany the course materials achieve this by presenting alternative viewpoints, diving deeper into the content and challenging the student to ‘stretch’ her/his current thinking.

Your Story/Challenge:

  • What are the core value(s) in your academic discipline?
  • What are the “standard” or “traditional” ways that these values are practiced in your discipline?
  • How can you “re-think” or “re-invent” your discipline values, especially in light of changing technology, changing student needs, and a changing environment?