The Socratic Method's Superiority | Generated by AI
Socrates’ Victory
After conducting various teaching experiments, I’ve found that the “Socratic method of questioning” yields far superior results compared to other approaches—outperforming every teaching method I’m familiar with.
We typically view “scholarly pursuit” as involving two parts: “learning,” where students absorb knowledge, and “asking,” where students pose questions to their teachers. Yet, in my experience, the most effective approach isn’t students questioning teachers—it’s the other way around: teachers questioning students.
One key reason is that, without proper guidance, students often don’t know how to formulate a good question; they might not even realize they have one worth asking. In my classes, I deliberately steer clear of letting students get overly curious right from the start and bombard me with questions. Many of these inquiries simply evaporate with minimal direction. But if you try to answer them before the student has built a solid foundation of understanding, explanations become convoluted and ineffective.
When I first arrived at Indiana University (IU), I figured I already had a decent grasp of programming languages (PL) from a course I’d taken at Cornell, so I had no interest in attending Matt Friedman’s class. He insisted strongly that I join, and eventually, I relented. But consider the alternative: if I’d stubbornly refused, he likely would have cut off all further interaction—no more conversations, no more answers to my queries. A student shaped by someone else’s teaching style struggles immensely to ask meaningful questions. It makes it tough for the instructor to clarify concepts, and worse, the student might end up challenging the teacher with half-baked ideas picked up elsewhere, turning discussions into frustrating time sinks.
This dynamic explains why so many academic disciplines form into distinct “schools” or sects. Switching allegiances? Expect your new mentor to reteach everything from the ground up—otherwise, genuine dialogue becomes impossible.