The Socratic Seminar: Practical Tips for Conducting

Paideia's two-fold goal is to teach all students to think, and to enable all adults in students' lives to see themselves as life-long learners.

Education, according to the Paideia Program, involves three kinds of teaching: didactic, coaching, and seminars. Seminars should account for 15-20% of all instruction and typically include four elements: the text, the questions, the leader, and the participants. Seminars allow a student a chance to discuss intellectually a selected reading, increase his or her level of comprehension, and develop a deeper understanding of complex ideas in a selected text. It is an intellectual dialogue facilitated by a leader who asks open-ended questions.

The Structure of a Seminar

Generally, seminars are conducted in three parts:

1. The first part of the seminar is reserved for understanding the author's ideas and the rationale for them. To identify the author's ideas and perspectives, students cite and refer directly to pertinent sections of the text.
2. In the second part of the seminar, participants engage with the text. Their ideas may reveal missing perspectives related to the author's main points. At this state, there are no right or wrong answers of “opinions,” but there are stronger supported opinions and weaker supported opinions.
3. The third part of the seminar focuses on how the substance of the discussion can be applied or infused in participants' lives and work.

Materials

Select a short reading that relates to the curriculum being studied. The piece can be a fable, poem, speech, or any other document containing concepts and ideas that are timeless. T he materials chosen for seminar should always be sufficiently over the head of the students at any level, so that they have to reach up to understand what they have read. A seminar should always result in the students' understanding more after they have discussed what they read than before the discussion started. Although most seminars will focus on written work, they may also be conducted based on a work of art or a piece of music.

Pre- and Post- Seminar Strategies

Students need to read the selection and have a basic understanding of the content and vocabulary before the seminar. Be sure to inform students of their role and of your role as leader in a Paideia seminar. An example of an appropriate set of guidelines is available at: http://www.studyguide.org/socratic_seminar.htm Set goals for participation for yourself and for the group. Following the seminar, consider time for individual reflection and assessment or a writing activity based on the ideas in the selected text. Find out from students what they learned from the discussion.

Setting the Stage

• Arrange chairs in a circle. Use name cards so individuals can be addressed by name.
• Re-iterate seminar guidelines or ground rules.
• Identify goals for the seminar

Conducting a Socratic Seminar and Asking Questions

The best questions for seminar purposes are ones to which there is no single correct answer, but rather many answers that compete for attention, understanding, and judgment in light of whatever evidence and reasoning may be offered. Below are some additional suggestions.

• Prepare a few short open-ended questions about the text to begin the seminar. Some examples include asking student to identify what they believe to be the most important statement in the text. Ask students why they chose this statement. You can also ask which statement each participant did not agree with in the text. Students should think critically about the text and their answers.
• Move on to asking “core questions” that encourage students to analyze the text in detail.
• Towards the end ask “closing questions” that bring the points discussed back home to a personal level for the students. Ask students how the text relates to the “real world.”
• Throughout the seminar you may follow up statements from the students with questions such as: “Why?” and “What do you mean?? Ask for specific examples from the text. Ask who in the group agrees or disagrees with the statements?
• Allow students time before responding to questions and encourage them to paraphrase examples from the text.
• Do not allow one person or yourself, as leader, to dominate the discussion.
• Allow time to “debrief” the seminar. This includes focusing on what happened during the seminar and the interaction of the group.

Other Tips for Seminar Leaders or Moderators

The task of the seminar leader or moderator is threefold:

1. To ask a series of questions that defines the discussion and gives it direction.
2. To examine or query the answers by trying to draw out the reasons for them or the implications they have.
3. To engage the participants in two-way talk with one another when the views they have advanced appear to be in conflict.

The best seminars occur when a leader joins students in examining the issues and questions raised by the text. In such a seminar the leader is not a teacher in the ordinary sense. He/she is merely the first among equals in a joint effort to reach a goal that is shared by all.

Indicators of a Good Seminar

Though not a checklist of what must happen in every seminar, the following list provides some indicators of an effective seminar:

• Participants refer to the text to support their points.
• They back up statements with examples and reasons.
• They listen carefully to what other participants say.
• They refer to comments made by other participants.
• They are open to views that are new to them.
• The group resists seeking unanimity of opinion, but rather shared understanding of the alternatives to be considered.
• The seminar closes with difficult issues unresolved, matters to be pondered.

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