LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 15:6 June 2015
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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The Use of Socratic Method as a Teaching/Learning Tool to
Develop Students’ Critical Thinking: a Review of Literature

Pezhman Zare & Jayakaran Mukundan

Abstract

This paper reviews the literature on Socratic Method as a teaching/learning tool to enhance critical thinking skills. It starts with a short history of Socratic Method by introducing its founder and briefly provides an overall picture of the method. Then, a number of definitions of critical thinking is presented and discussed. Next, taxonomy of Socratic questioning is presented. The taxonomy provides a detailed description of questions that can be used when employing Socratic Method. Afterwards, a number of previous studies are reviewed to show the influence of Socratic approach on critical thinking skills. Finally, a brief conclusion will close the paper.

Keywords: Socratic Method, Critical Thinking, Questioning

Introduction

Socrates was a Greek philosopher who is renowned as one of the creators of western philosophy. He is also known as the founding father of a teaching/learning approach which is fueled by questions. Socratic approach follows a chain of orderly and structured questions which assist learners to become aware of their weaknesses in thinking, lack of knowledge, wrong inferences, and false hypotheses. This teaching/learning approach does not follow conventional way of teaching in which students are required to do memorization, read textbooks, listen to lectures, and sit for tests. In this method, instructors raise questions to help learners improve their deep and critical thinking and gain better understanding of topics and ideas. Through this approach of instruction, there are no ultimate answers for the questions that are being raised. As a matter of fact, the person who brings up these questions is not looking for such answers. The idea is to motivate and inspire reflection. Copeland (2005) explains that it is important for teachers to clarify that these questions are not intended to create an environment of judgment, but rather to help students “examine their attitudes, beliefs, knowledge and logic” (Copeland, p.14).

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Pezhman Zare, Ph.D. Candidate
pezhman.zare@yahoo.com

Prof. Jayakaran Mukundan, Ph.D.
jaya@educ.upm.edu.my; jayakaranmukundan@yahoo.com
Department of Language and Humanities Education
Faculty of Educational Studies
Universiti Putra Malaysia
43400 Serdang
Selangor
Malaysia

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