The Power of the Socratic Classroom

Education & Reference

synopsis

Synopsis

Do You Have 21st-Century Skills to Help Your Students Succeed? Do Your Students Have 21st-Century Skills to Think for Themselves? The Power of the Socratic Classroom has the answers you are looking for—answers that will supply the strategies to show students how to succeed into the future. A future that has unknown products, unidentified jobs, and unanticipated challenges. In Socratic Seminar, teachers shift to the role of facilitator, where they help their students develop the collaborative interpersonal skills, the critical and creative thinking skills, and the speaking and listening skills to face the upcoming challenges of the 21st century.

bio

Author Biography

Charles Fischer has taught in public and private schools in a variety of settings, from rural Maine to inner city Atlanta. In the past 20 years, he has worked with a wide range of students from 4th grade to AP English and has been nominated for Teacher of the Year four times. He has his Master’s degree in Teaching & Learning from the University of Southern Maine, and received his B.A. in English Literature and Creative Writing from Binghamton University. His latest book, The Power of the Socratic Classroom, has won four awards, including the NIEA Best Education Book. His first novel, Beyond Infinity, won a 2014 Independent Publisher Book Award bronze medal (YA fiction). His areas of expertise are Socratic Seminar, Active Listening, Inquiry, Teaching & Learning, and Critical & Creative Thinking. He is currently working on a book of poetry, a short story collection, and several novels.

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Author Insight

Flipped Thinking

Real dialogue in the classroom that involves deep curiosity and wonder, often creates novel thinking. In such a circumstance, it's the creative thinkers who feel right at home--and they are often the same students who struggle against the conformities of school. The students who now struggle are those who had found success in the traditional school system. This flipped situation presents a wonderful opportunity because everyone gets to be a part of creating and crafting novel ideas. This includes the teachers, who will likely find themselves marveling at the interesting connections and conclusions students have.

Book Excerpt

The Power of the Socratic Classroom

Teachers who facilitate several seminars with the same group of students often note an interesting phenomenon: Many of the straight-A students are remarkably quiet, whereas many of the students at-risk for failing contribute the most.

Some straight-A students take this compliance to an alarming level where they are virtually unable to generate original thoughts or opinions of their own. These students do not have a lot of practice with critical and creative thinking because they spend most of their time doing what they’re told and getting rewarded with high grades for it.

At the other end of the spectrum are the bright students who refuse to play the “school game” and are at risk of failing. Sometimes these students are rebelling against authority, but many of them are disengaged because to them regurgitating information is incredibly boring. Even worse, the “amazing” ideas and contemplations in their current classes were their routine thoughts from previous years. For such students, school is an uninspiring place of repetitive tedium. Some of the smartest and most interesting people I knew in high school hovered on failure and nearly dropped out of school.

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Charles Ames Fischer

The Power of the Socratic Classroom

Synopsis

Author Biography

Author Insight

Flipped Thinking

Book Excerpt

The Power of the Socratic Classroom

Comment on this Bubble