- Students learn the definitions of Socratic Seminars and roundtables
- Students learn about the historical use, and present usefulness of Socratic Seminars and roundtables in decision-making processes
All these deliberative and participatory practices that you learnt about in lesson 4 have also influenced the way teachers are delivering their courses as well as school curricula structure and scopes. In particular, it is observed that new pedagogies in teaching practices focus now more on encouraging student-led discussions and deliberation in classes as a method to stimulate critical thinking skills. Moreover, these participatory approaches are expected to also nurture civic behaviours and democratic attitudes in students that learn how to engage in a fruitful dialogue with their peers, learning thus how to respect in practice diverse opinions and worldviews.
In this lesson, we will focus on an innovative way to encourage student-led discussions in the classroom, known as “Socratic Seminars”.
Let’s find out together what they are and how you can apply them in your learning and teaching context!