CONCEPTS, ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS & INQUIRY:
What Would Socrates Do?
Presented by
RICHARD D. COURTRIGHT, PH.D.
GIFTED EDUCATION RESEARCH SPECIALIST, DUKE UNIVERSITY TALENT IDENTIFICATION PROGRAM
What is not covered by the Standards?
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The Standards define what all students are expected to know and be able to do, not how teachers
should teach… they do not—indeed, cannot—enumerate all or even most of the content that
students should learn.
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While the Standards focus on what is most essential, they do not describe all that can or should be
taught.
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The Standards do not define the nature of advanced work for students who meet the Standards prior
to the end of high school. For those students, advanced work in such areas as literature,
composition, language, and journalism should be available.
What is not covered by the Standards?
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The Standards set grade-specific standards but do not define the intervention methods or materials
necessary to support students who are well below or well above grade-level expectations. No set of
grade-specific standards can fully reflect the great variety in abilities, needs, learning rates, and
achievement levels of students in any given classroom.
“Teachers no longer are the sole keepers of knowledge to impart to their students…Children today
can find information on any subject within seconds via the Internet. A teacher's job now is to
teach students how to find primary sources, critically analyze the vast amounts of
information out there and then apply their new learning to useful, real-world problems.”
–
Robin Hopper, assistant superintendent,
Livingston Union School District, California
Themes, or Essential Understandings of 21st Century Learning
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Just-in-time content instead of just-in-case content
Big problems need conceptual thinkers
What problem must we solve today?
• …poses the problem, dilemma, or creative project FIRST.
• …BEFORE the mastery of facts begins.
The New Paradigm
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Every day, teachers coaching students in skill practice, in answer to a driving
question…
What will your students question today? Discuss? Research? Debate? Create?
Gifted Kids Can Handle “the Big Ideas”…
Can be coached to ask the tough questions
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…to tackle the big problems
…to find the cures
…to see the hidden themes
A Metaphor…for the Paradigm Shift Toward Big Thinking
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Nuts and bolts teaching…teaching lots of individual “stuff,” just rattling around!
…versus…
Toolkit teaching…teaching thinking skills as tools to manage facts while approaching
complex problems
Four Core Elements of Lesson Design That Require a Lot of Thought
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Content objectives (what will they know?)
Skill objectives (what will they be able to do?)
Essential Understandings (what will they understand?)
Essential Questions (what [problems] will they investigate or explore?)
….organized by an overarching concept
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Concepts Organize Our Lives.
They make the content objectives—all the bits and bytes of data—matter.
They prompt us to ask the Big Questions of Life.
They make us use critical thinking skills to solve the Big Questions of Life.
“The concepts fundamental to the human condition [family, authority, faith, love, change,
causality, truth, and wisdom] are also fundamental to human learning—to our understanding of the
world around us and within us. Consequently, such ideas can and should be fundamental to the
educational process.”
–
Joyce Van Tassel-Baska and Catherine A. Little,
Content-Based Curriculum for High-Ability Learners
Concepts: Put Them into Action, Daily
Individuality
Society
Legality/Illegality
Access
Force
Freedom
Order
Structure
Good/Evil
Communication
Systems
Conflict
Patterns
Change
Power
Origins
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Theme – an abstract concept that is transdisciplinary and elemental.
Concept – an abstract, general idea of a thing or a class of things; a category or
classification within a discipline.
Generalization – a fundamental truth about the relationship between/among two
or more interdisciplinary concepts.
Principle – a fundamental truth, law or doctrine that explains the relationship
between two or more concepts within a discipline.
Fact – a specific detail, a bit of information that is verifiable.
Which concepts are you passionate about?
Which concepts matter to your students?
• Relevance
• Connection
• Meaning
• Learners do not get excited about facts -• Students get excited and passionate about ideas.
Concepts: Abstract, Big, Open!
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Concepts are usually one word: abstract, infinite, and vague.
Concepts inspire questions.
Concepts require analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.
Concepts lead to generalizations, themes, and the art of argumentation.
Concepts require higher levels of thought to absorb, understand, and explore.
Concept learning is fundamental to knowledge acquisition. (Concepts improve
memory and recall by organizing raindrop facts into rain barrels.)
Concepts link disciplines together. (Remember how real-world problems are
interdisciplinary? What interdisciplinary problem will drive your class?)
Concepts link learners to the content.
Essential Questions
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inquire about key problems, issues, themes, concerns, or interests relevant to our
students and our community
are open-ended—why, how, what if, what questions
Socratic, non-judgmental, neutral, inviting exploration of ideas
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…spark discussion
…ask for interpretations, claims, argument
…require evidence gathering
…lead to Essential Understandings (thesis of the moment)
…lead to products and performances
Emphasize the production of solutions to real world problems in the manner of
the practicing expert/specialist.
THREE TYPES OF TEACHING
ADAPTED FROM THE PAIDEIA PROPOSAL
COLUMN ONE
COLUMN TWO
COLUMN
THREE
Acquisition of
organized knowledge
Development of
intellectual skills -skills of learning
Enlarge the
understanding of
ideas and values
by means of
by means of
by means of
DIDACTIC
TEACHING
COACHING
INSTRUCTION
MAIEUTIC OR
SOCRATIC
EDUCATION
through
through
through
Lectures, Responses
Textbooks and Other Aids
Exercises and Supervised
Practice
Active Participation
In three areas of subject
matter:
in the operations of
in the discussion of
Language, Literature,
and the Fine Arts
Reading, Writing,
Speaking and Listening
Books (not textbooks),
Literature, Essays, Fine Arts,
Historical Documents
Mathematics and Science
Calculating, Observing, and
Problem-Solving, Observing,
Measuring, Estimating
Proposing and Opposing Ideas
History, Geography
and Social Studies
Exercising Critical Thinking
Involvement in
Artistic Activities
Involving Cognition in
Involving Cognition in
Involving Cognition in
Knowledge and
Comprehension
Application and
Analysis
Synthesis and
Evaluation
Learner: Receptive
Teacher: Directive
Learner and Teacher are
Interactive
Learner: Directive
Teacher: Receptive
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Seminar Defined
"Questioning students about something they have read so as to help them improve their
understanding of basic ideas and values...[Seminars] are conversations, conducted in an
orderly manner by the teacher who acts as leader or moderator of the discussion."
(Adler, 1984)
Rules for Conducting a Socratic Seminar
1. Seat the students in a circle.
2. The seminar leader may only ask questions.
3. All students must have read the selection.
4. Answers given to the question(s) are related to the text under
study; no outside source is cited.
Guidelines for the Socratic Seminar Leader
• Asks an opening question.
• Asks for clarification and precision of the response.
• Redirects the question until a clear answer is given.
• Looks for connections of the response to larger issues.
• Involves everyone (keeping a seating chart may help with this).
• Uses wait time.
• Is an active listener.
• Objectively receives the participant's answer.
• Does not insist on common agreement; seeks diverging opinions in the answers.
• Determines the resolution of the question.
Developing Good Questions for Socratic Seminars
 The questions prepared for discussion should be interpretive.
Three types of questions:
Fact
Interpretation
Evaluation
 There should be an element of doubt regarding the answer to the question.
 Should be answerable based on what the author has said in the text.
 Should deal with the important, crucial elements of the work.
 Should relate specifically to the work at hand, rather than a question that
could be asked about any work.
 Clarity and simplicity of the questions is important. The KISS rule applies.
 Should be interesting to you as leader of the discussion.
Content Analysis: Preparing the Questions for a Socratic Seminar
 Read the selection.
 Read the selection again, and
 Evaluate the students' readiness for the content.
 Consider community or school factors for connecting themes.
 Underline crucial words, examining their precise meaning.
 Identify pivotal sentences or paragraphs in which major points are
raised, argued or discussed.
 Make a list of the important points, questions and issues.
 Devise a series of questions to be addressed.
 Order the questions
 Devise a diagram or chart to frame the issues or indicate opposing opinions.
 Examine time available and prioritize important points.
 Prepare five questions; plan to use three; begin with the best question.
Structure: "Ideal" Characteristics of a Socratic Seminar
Who:
Any and all students of any age.
What:
Any work of human creativity.
When:
Once a week on Wednesday.
Where: In a circle.
How:
Badly, then better.
Why:
To develop deeper understanding of the ideas, values, problems,
issues and themes in the curriculum.
Why:
To regain a large measure of the pleasures of teaching and the
teacher-learner interaction.
Why:
To increase student thinking and reasoning ability.
Why:
To increase student communication ability.
Why:
For the joy of it.
CONTACT: Rick Courtright
Gifted Education Research Specialist
Duke University Talent Identification Program
300 Fuller Street
P.O. Box 90780
Durham, NC 27701
(919) 668-9130 (Phone)
(919) 668-9141 (Fax)
RCourtright@tip.duke.edu
www.tip.duke.edu