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Socratic Method

The Socratic method is a teaching technique where the teacher asks students questions to stimulate critical thinking. It involves questioning assumptions, testing ideas through logical reasoning rather than memorization. This method trains law students' minds to analyze situations from different perspectives. It promotes active engagement through a shared dialogue between teacher and students where the teacher leads by asking thought-provoking questions and students ask their own questions. While it has advantages like encouraging participation and cognitive development, it also has disadvantages like potentially confusing students if the teacher is inexperienced or if the class size is too large.

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362 views2 pages

Socratic Method

The Socratic method is a teaching technique where the teacher asks students questions to stimulate critical thinking. It involves questioning assumptions, testing ideas through logical reasoning rather than memorization. This method trains law students' minds to analyze situations from different perspectives. It promotes active engagement through a shared dialogue between teacher and students where the teacher leads by asking thought-provoking questions and students ask their own questions. While it has advantages like encouraging participation and cognitive development, it also has disadvantages like potentially confusing students if the teacher is inexperienced or if the class size is too large.

Uploaded by

Anonymous KRQaT2PnYq
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Socratic method

Socratic Method appeals to the curiosity of the law students and trains their minds to analyse the
situation from different angles. The Socratic method involves asking questions, posing tentative
answers, testing those answers, evaluating the results, and living out those results to the best of
human understanding. This is something for which human minds are naturally trained. The study
of subjects of law can be best possible by this method of dialogues, discussion and critical
thinking. The lawyers’ professional role and requisite skills can be easily accessed and improved
by opting this Socratic method for teaching law course.

The Socratic method of teaching is a student-centred approach that challenges learners to


develop their critical thinking skills and engages them in analytical discussion. It is also called as
‘Dialectic method’. The Socratic Method can be used at any grade level and with all subject
areas and lessons can be adapted to fit a changing society.

The Socratic Method involves a shared dialogue between teacher and students. The teacher leads
by posing thought-provoking questions. Students actively engage by asking questions of their
own. The discussion goes back and forth. In the Socratic method of education, teachers engage
students by asking questions that require generative answers. Study of law is different than study
of science subjects, since law deals with social and behavioural patterns of human beings. For
better study of law, it is desirable that the law students are made to think rationally, to go to the
core issue of need for the laws, in order to better understand the applicability of the laws.
Socratic Method appeals to the curiosity of the law students and train their minds to analyse the
situation from different dimensions.

The advantages of Socratic Methods, are recapitulated as follows:


(i) While using this method the teacher keeps in mind the abilities, needs and interests of the
learner which proves helpful for students;
(ii) It involves the student’s participation in the subject matter;
(iii) It helps in achieving cognitive objectives and bringing conscious level;
(iv) Classroom verbal interaction is encouraged and
(v) It is a useful strategy at all the levels of education.
Though there are many advantages to the teaching method of Socratic, it has other side also,
which can be termed as the disadvantages.
There are different views about the Socratic Method as every coin has two sides. Apart from this,
sometimes it may happen that students may not answer on the questions raised by the teacher.
Sometimes discussion may lead to different area or no outcome is seen. IT MAY LEAD TO
twisty discussion that often have no real point and leave students even more confused than
before’ when The ‘teacher’ is not experienced with the ways in which the interaction may go.

The inherent requirement of Socratic Method of study is that the students must participate and
interact in the discussion. This presupposes that the students have basic idea of the concept to be
discussed. However, study of law many times involves study of various complex issues and at
that stage, the Socratic Method may create confusion rather than clearing the concept. For,
teaching law, the Socratic method can be effective for teaching a subject after discussing the
basic concept, thereafter, the students. will be encouraged to understand the niceties of the case.
Apart from this, the discussion, analysis and interaction can be actually fruitful amongst a limited
number of students which could be ideally 15 to 20 students. the Socratic Method for law
teaching can achieve the best results by targeting a smaller group of students.

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