Wednesday, January 13, 2016

USING THE SOCRATIC METHOD TO TEACH MORE THAN JUST STUFF



If you have read this blog for long, you know I began using the Socratic Method in my accounting classes way back in 1991.   I often get questions about why I started and how I use the Socratic Method.   I always tell people that it is hard to explain unless you are there to watch the process.    People simply don’t believe that you can teach complex accounting theory by firing hard ball questions at the students.  

I was asked last fall to discuss the Socratic Method at a faculty forum here on campus and give a demonstration.   I wasn’t sure how well that would work.   But I talked for a while and then I, along with nine of my students, did a bit of a typical class using this approach.   It normally runs more smoothly in a real class environment but it worked fairly well in this artificial setting.

In the presentation, I do put a focus on the book and the movie that forever changed how I taught my classes.

If you are interested in the possibility of using the Socratic Method (for accounting or any other topic), the URL for a video of this presentation can be found below.   You might decide that it is something you want to try.   On this blog, I am always stressing the three E’s:   experiment, evaluate, evolve.   Perhaps this could be the basis for an experiment.

I am told that this video will not run on Internet Explorer but will work on Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.


http://urctlt.com/streamthis.php?ID=652422

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