What is it about?
The purpose of this study was to benchmark the types of Socratic questioning that were occurring in a Socrates Café, an online discussion forum, in a graduate level diversity course in teacher education.
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Why is it important?
Discussion—and a Socrates Café discussion in particular—is part of a larger curricular goal (Parker, 2001) that intersects the two aspirations of diversity and democracy in an ongoing inquiry. The Socrates Cafe makes explicit pedagogical intentions to assist students “to set alongside one perception of the matter under discussion the several perceptions of other participants, challenging our own view of things with those of others” (Bridges, 1979, p.50), creating a new dialectic in the process. The Socrates Cafe online discussions in this study revealed a symbiotic relationship between the value of critical analysis and values of diversity for teacher educators in that its format has the potential to facilitate civil discourse and democratic engagement for both individuals and for the larger community.
Perspectives
Teacher education pedagogy can do much to facilitate spaces where students engage with difficult and contrasting ideas within civil discourse.
Dr Jody S Piro
Western Connecticut State University
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This page is a summary of: Discussions in a Socrates Café: Implications for Critical Thinking in Teacher Education, Action in Teacher Education, May 2015, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/01626620.2015.1048009.
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