The Power of the Socratic Classroom

Where do "good" ideas come from?

In the classroom, many of the best ideas come from the quiet students. Sure, there are some students who end up with a clever idea just because they had a lot of them, but I am talking about a general pattern I have observed. And what I mean by a “good” idea here is something that breaks the status quo, an idea that is truly different than anything else in the room. My current thinking on this subject is that ideas need incubation time. Sometimes even weeks or months or years. It’s the quiet students, the deep thinkers, who are able to give their brain space to an incubating idea. These students are often quiet because they are dwelling on an idea and know that it’s not fully formed yet. They stay quiet in many classes because they are unwilling or unable to share partially formed ideas. How do we encourage partial ideas in the classroom? I think a big part of this is to have a lot of dialogue. More not less. We would need to create safe spaces where partial ideas have value. Most classroom situations expect fully formed answers, likely because it is efficient. But a partial answer is a great place to start in dialogue because everyone could contribute to its completion and feel good about it in the process.