Socratic Questioning Example
This questioning dialogue would take place after the project had been introduced and was well underway.
| Teacher: | What is happening to our global climate? |
| Stan: | It’s getting warmer. |
| Teacher: | How do you know it’s getting warmer? What evidence do you have to support your answer? |
| Stan: | It’s in the news all of the time. They are always saying that it’s not as cold as it used to be. We have all of these record heat days. |
| Teacher: | Has anyone else heard of this kind of news? |
| Denise: | Yeah. I have read about it the newspaper. They call it global warming, I think. |
| Teacher: | Are you saying that you learned about global warming from newscasters? Are you assuming they know that global warming is occurring? |
| Heidi: | I heard it too. It’s terrible. The ice caps in the Arctic are melting. The animals are losing their homes. I think the newscasters hear it from the scientists that are studying the issue. |
| Teacher: | If that is the case and the scientists are telling the newscasters, how do the scientists know? |
| Chris: | They have instruments to measure climate. They conduct research that measures the Earth’s temperature. |
| Teacher: | How long do you think scientists have been doing this? |
| Grant: | Probably 100 years. |
| Candace: | Maybe a little more than that. |
| Teacher: | Actually, it’s been studied for about 140 years. Since about 1860. |
| Heidi: | We were close. |
| Teacher: | Yes. How did you know that? |
| Grant: | I just figured that seems like when instruments were available and scientists had the means to measure climate like that. |
| Teacher: | So, looking at the last 100 year’s climate on this graph, what can we say about the earth’s climate? |
| Raja: | The 20th century has become much warmer than previous centuries. |
| Teacher: | Can we hypothesize why? |
| Raja: | One word: pollution. |
| Teacher: | What are you assuming when you say that pollution is the cause for the temperatures to rise? |
| Heidi: | Carbon dioxide from cars causes pollution and chemicals from factories. |
| Frank: | Hair spray causes dangerous chemicals to get into the atmosphere. |
| Teacher: | Okay. Let’s take a minute to review what we’ve discussed so far. |
View the Project Plan, Literature e-Circles* (Original project - not adapted) to see a Socratic Seminar in practice.
