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1 This article is a post-print version. The final article is published as follows: Schiller, N. (2008). Finding a Socratic method for information literacy instruction. College & Undergraduate Libraries, 15(1-2). https://doi.org/10.1080/10691310802176798 Nicholas Schiller, MLS, is the Library Instruction Coordinator for Washington State University – Vancouver, WA (address email to [email protected]) Finding a Socratic Method for Information Literacy Instruction Nicholas Schiller Librarians can find techniques for improving information literacy in Plato’s Socratic dialogs. The Socratic Method is an effective tool that can help engage students in critical thinking about their research, guide students to reveal flaws in their reasoning, and prepare them to learn new research skills. Examples of information literacy instruction drawn from Socratic dialogs are given along with tips for avoiding pitfalls associated with the Socratic Method. Socratic Method, information literacy instruction, critical thinking, student engagement, dialectic, library instruction, philosophy, dialog INTRODUCTION Do you suppose that he would have attempted to look for, or learn, what he thought he knew, though he did not, before he was thrown into perplexity, became aware of his ignorance, and felt a desire to know?- Meno84d Instruction librarians have many tools at our disposal for teaching information literacy. Still, we continually look forward for new, innovative ways to increase the quality of our instruction, engage our students, and facilitate student 2 learning. There are situations where looking backwards can reap just as many benefits. If we look back to Athens in the years preceding 399 BCE to Plato’s Socrates, we will find a pedagogy that can inform our current practice in information literacy instruction. The method Socrates employed to seek truth, stimulate the intellectually lazy, and help his students use critical reasoning to uncover flaws in their knowledge can be a valuable skill in the instruction librarian’s repertoire. When appropriately applied and supported by other pedagogical techniques, teaching with the Socratic Method can increase the effectiveness of our existing instruction programs by guiding our students to critically examine their existing information skills and practices, by providing active learning techniques, and by critically engaging them in thinking about information issues. THE SOCRATIC METHOD The label Socratic Method has been applied to a wide range of pedagogical techniques. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy gives a general definition of the Socratic Method as: “Any philosophical or pedagogical method that disinterestedly pursues truth through analytical discussion.” Discussion is key, but the kind of discussion used is central to understanding what makes a discussion particularly Socratic in nature. More narrowly defined, the Socratic Method involves an instructor using questions to prod students into critically 3 examining their opinions. This technique of guided questioning and answers is often referred to as dialectic, a Greek term that means discourse, or elenchus, which can be roughly translated as refutation. However, not every pedagogy that uses questions or cross-examination can be called Socratic. Phillips, who is attempting to recreate Socrates’ style of popular philosophy, explains in Socrates Cafe that “it is a type that reveals people to themselves, that makes them see what their opinions really amount to.” (Phillips 2001, 20) Another useful definition of Socrates’ method can be found in Copleston’s History of Philosophy. …Socrates would lead the conversation in that direction, and when the other man had used the word “courage,” Socrates would ask him what courage is, professing his own ignorance and desire to learn. His companion had used the word, therefore he must know what it meant. When some definition or description had been given him, Socrates would express great satisfaction, but would intimate that there were one or two little difficulties which he would like to see cleared up. Accordingly he asked questions, letting the other man do most of the talking, but keeping the course of the conversation under his control, and so would expose the inadequacy of the proposed definition of courage. The other would fall back on a fresh or modified definition, and so the process would go on, with or without final success. (Copleston 1985, 106) This kind of Socratic instruction includes certain key elements: it begins with the student expressing an opinion or factual claim. The instructor asks probing questions, guiding the student to critical reflection of their stated opinion. As they answer the questions, the students identify and reject bad reasoning and false claims to knowledge. If successful, the student ends up with a clearer understanding of the topic compared to what they started with. They will have 4 shed themselves of incorrect or mistaken ideas and thus will be ready to seek out better ideas to replace them. Instruction using this Socratic Method differs from expository or lecture style instruction in three key ways. First, the Socratic Method does not involve the instructor bringing a body of expert knowledge to impart to her students. In Theaetus Socrates compares the instructor’s role to that of a midwife (Plato 1961, 150a-d) i.e., she helps the student through the process, but it is the student who gives birth to knowledge. Second, the learning that takes place under the Socratic Method involves the shedding of false knowledge, rather than adding correct knowledge. Third, there are no pre-existing “correct” answers to Socratic questions. The instructor using the Socratic Method focuses on the students’ existing knowledge. The questions serve to help the students refine their existing knowledge and rid themselves of poorly conceived opinions. The questions asked clear the ground and set a solid foundation for building future knowledge. Unlike other models of instruction, the instructor’s role is not to add any new knowledge during the class. Socrates did not claim to have any knowledge to give to his students, but by using dialectic to help them examine their ideas he did them a great service. As he said in the Meno: “Now notice what, starting from this state of perplexity, he will discover by seeking the truth in company with me, though 5 I simply ask him questions without teaching him.” (Plato 1961, 84 c-d) This is the role the instructor has under the Socratic Method: helping students realize what they don’t know and preparing them to discover answers to their questions. The learning that takes place under the Socratic Method is often destructive rather than constructive. That is to say, students will realize that there is much that they do not know and that much of what they thought they knew was incorrect. The value of ridding students of their false claims to knowledge is at least as valuable to the learning process as providing them with new knowledge. In many cases, new knowledge cannot be properly assimilated until existing false conceptions are removed. By guiding the students to critically evaluate their existing understanding on a given topic, the Socratic Method can help students identify problems and contradictions in their views. When students discover for themselves the flaws in their opinions they will be motivated to correct them, more so than if the flaws had not been pointed out and their confidence left unshaken. When questioned by an instructor, a student provides an answer that traditionally has been assessed by how closely it corresponds to the instructor’s expert knowledge. The point is to give the “correct” answer. When using the Socratic Method, answers to questions are assessed by the level to which they critically reflect on their claims to knowledge. Under this system, for students to 6 discover that their answers are “wrong” is an achievement and a success! The goal of Socratic instruction is to stimulate critical thinking and self-awareness, not to enforce the authority of a particular “correct” answer or set of answers. The Encyclopedia of Philosophy describes this as follows: For Socrates knowledge was not acceptance of secondhand opinions which could be handed over for a sum of money like a phonograph record (or encyclopedia) but a personal achievement gained through continual self- criticism. Philosophy involved not learning the answers but searching for them—a search more hopeful if jointly undertaken by two friends, one perhaps more experienced than the other but both in love with the goal of truth and reality and willing to subject themselves honestly to the critical test of reason alone. (Edwards 1967, s.v. “Socrates”) Problematic Interpretations of the Socratic Method Not everyone shares this view of Socrates’ Method. Some identify trickery, humiliation, and entrapment as the defining characteristics of the Socratic Method. The film The Paper Chase and its terrifying Professor Kingsfield provides a very different model of the Socratic Method from the one outlined above. The implacable instructor who entraps students with trick questions and humiliates them for giving wrong answers is not a model I suggest we follow. It is possible to use dialectic methods to enforce a certain viewpoint and to punish those who cannot supply the “correct” answer. Some define the Socratic Method in exactly that manner. A New Dictionary of Eponyms describes the Socratic Method as: …a form of cross-examination which tangled his students in a network of errors. When asking questions, Socrates feigned ignorance (which is known 7 as Socratic irony), luring the students to feel free to speak their minds. Through a series of questions, the students were led to the conclusion that Socrates had reached long before the class convened. (Freeman 1997, s.v. “Socrates”) Socrates did make free use of irony and occasionally people who challenged him were humiliated. He admitted that some younger students may have attended his lectures “because they enjoy hearing me examine those who think they are wise when they are not—an experience which has its amusing side.” (Plato 1961, 33c) An attempt to modernize the Socratic Method needs to account for this.

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