Socratic Method in Law Schools
Something just about miraculous takes place when someone else asks us a question and then actually listens to our answer. Like the well-known key to a pot of gold full of amazing wealth, questions somehow unlock our brains. They help us invent new ideas, see an argument from different points of view, and discover solutions we never knew that we knew! Because such information comes from inside us, not from the exterior world, it is really “ours.” By this I mean it speedily becomes part of our conscious information ; it isn’t something that we’ve got to “stuff in” to our brains or cram for so as to learn. This way of approaching learning and problem-solving has become called the “Socratic Method.” First discussed by Plato in the Socratic Dialogues ( fourth century B.C.E. ), the method consists at heart of a chat between 2 folk : the Examiner / Listener and the Speaker. The Greeks made use of the Socratic Strategy to explore philosophical questions rotating around ethics and morals. In present times, many law schools have adopted it as a technique of teaching scholars to think like a lawyer. Both these uses can be quite argumentative nevertheless, because they typically involve the defense of one viewpoint against another. They also say that the Examiner is an “expert” whose goal is to steer the Speaker to a specific viewpoint or understanding using a sequence of scrupulously selected questions.
In opposition to this application, folk in the Creativeness and Speed Learning movements have started to take an alternative approach. One man particularly – Win Wenger – has given to the field. Writer of “The Einstein Factor : A Confirmed New Technique for Adding To Your Intelligence,” Win has developed innumerable querying methods that emphasise open-ended exploration. In his approach, there is not any “right” answer, no last destination.
As an alternative the Speaker is urged to explore, invent, and experience their own creative journey. And the sole experience needed from the Examiner is the facility to listen well, pose questions, and inspire considerate replies. As a consequence, many of us have discovered that when anyone asks them questions on a problem that is suggestive to them–and really listens to their answers–the doors open to their own creative genius deep within themselves.
Part of the reason behind this, Win explains, is that describing our perceptions aloud in detail to someone else excites our capability to understand in ever larger depth. Put simply, whatever we concentrate on grows. The more aware we are of own perceptions, the bigger our capability to create and untangle issues. Win strongly believes that : “Genius is there in almost everybody if given its opportunity to express and appear.
It’s there in your own awareness, not in somebody else’s second user, rote-memorized data.” And the interrogating / talking process embedded in the Socratic Methodology not only bolsters such perceptions, but also the general feature of being aware. So if your goal is to develop your creativeness or come up with a novel solution to something that challenges you, find somebody to chat to : someone that will ask you questions and listen meticulously to your answers.
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