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Socratic Method

"The Socratic method of reasoning and instruction was by a series of questions leading the one to whom they were addressed to perceive and admit what was true or false in doctrine, or right or wrong in conduct."

Source: Retrieved on 18 Mar 2004, from Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=socratic (pop-up)

Sophie Haroutunian-Gordon, an educational scholar, identified the following pedagogical aims of the Socratic method:

1. bring interlocutors to aporia [self-doubt];
2. pursue truth about fundamental questions;
3. teach proper intellectual habits;
4. modify the moral principles of the interlocutors.

Source: Retrieved on 18 Mar 2004, from Education Policy Analysis Archives, "The Use and Abuse of Socrates in Present Day Teaching." http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v5n20.html (pop-up)

Original source: Haroutunian-Gordon, S. (1987, fall). Evaluating teachers: The case of Socrates. Teachers College Record, 89(1), 117-32.