The Power of the Socratic Classroom

Education & Reference

synopsis

Synopsis

Do You Have 21st-Century Skills to Help Your Students Succeed? Do Your Students Have 21st-Century Skills to Think for Themselves? The Power of the Socratic Classroom has the answers you are looking for—answers that will supply the strategies to show students how to succeed into the future. A future that has unknown products, unidentified jobs, and unanticipated challenges. In Socratic Seminar, teachers shift to the role of facilitator, where they help their students develop the collaborative interpersonal skills, the critical and creative thinking skills, and the speaking and listening skills to face the upcoming challenges of the 21st century.

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Author Biography

Charles Fischer has taught in public and private schools in a variety of settings, from rural Maine to inner city Atlanta. In the past 20 years, he has worked with a wide range of students from 4th grade to AP English and has been nominated for Teacher of the Year four times. He has his Master’s degree in Teaching & Learning from the University of Southern Maine, and received his B.A. in English Literature and Creative Writing from Binghamton University. His latest book, The Power of the Socratic Classroom, has won four awards, including the NIEA Best Education Book. His first novel, Beyond Infinity, won a 2014 Independent Publisher Book Award bronze medal (YA fiction). His areas of expertise are Socratic Seminar, Active Listening, Inquiry, Teaching & Learning, and Critical & Creative Thinking. He is currently working on a book of poetry, a short story collection, and several novels.

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Author Insight

Today's Deep Thinking

Over the years, I have maintained my position that students rarely have opportunities to think deeply about texts and ideas. Zeiderman suggested that students use non-contemporary texts so that students don't just reinforce opinions. I certainly appreciated that advice when I started facilitating seminars over twenty years ago. Now, though, things have changed. In today's polarized landscape, I actually think we need to think deeply about critical issues that are affecting our lives. More than ever, politicized decisions are drastically changing people's lives. We owe it to our students and to the future to help them think critically and thoroughly about ideas, issues and values. More than ever, we need to help students empathize with others, to understand multiple viewpoints, and to make decisions that are not merely entrenched opinions. To this end, I would love to see more text pairings in Socratic Seminars. One text would be a contemporary piece and another a non-contemporary. This has the potential to show students how another group of people, separate in time and space, handled a similar situation. For example, we might have students read an article about recent laws pertaining to homelessness, paired with an excerpt from Plato’s Republic. Such a pairing will ceryainly open up quality dialogue.

Book Excerpt

The Power of the Socratic Classroom

Howard Zeiderman also suggests choosing non-contemporary texts. One of the dangers with contemporary texts is that students might become locked into thinking about them only in terms of like and dislike, rather then attempting to actually understand them. He writes, “If the text were entirely familiar and contemporary, it would only reinforce the opinions of some participants and run counter to the opinions of others. The result would be argument and debate rather than discussion. A degree of unfamiliarity, which is found in non-contemporary works, is therefore necessary.” Although I do not agree that non-contemporary texts are necessary, the idea is still important to consider. In my experience, students have rarely practiced thinking deeply, even about such things as their favorite songs that they hear everyday.

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Charles Ames Fischer

The Power of the Socratic Classroom

Synopsis

Author Biography

Author Insight

Today's Deep Thinking

Book Excerpt

The Power of the Socratic Classroom

Comment on this Bubble