> In ancient Greece, who developed a style of teaching that involved askingquestion after question, encouraging the student to think for themselves?And the answer: Socrates. Photo credit: Sting [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Sting].The Greekphilosopher Socrates developed a style of teaching that is now known as theSocratic method. The idea is that students learn through the use of logic,reasoning, and critical thinking. Through a series of questions, students findholes in their own theories, and then work to fix them.The Socratic Method is a process of dialogue based on questioning that inspirescritical thinking and analysis. The method was originally conceived as a tool toinvestigate moral and philosophical quandaries, but it is applied widely inclassroom settings today. Some of this method's biggest strengths lie in theability to structure constructive and sometimes challenging conversationswithout descending into argument or pure rhetoric. There are 5 main steps tofollow to in order to foster the Socratic Method. 1. Receive. First, it is important to listen and receive the other person's point of view, or argument. It is integral to properly listen before responding so that the dialogue is sustained fairly. 2. Reflect. The next step is to sum up the other person's viewpoint or argument, and reflect it back to them. This often works by getting the other participant to clarify their viewpoint before then repeating it back to them. 3. Refine. The third step requires a questioning of the other person's evidence. Finding out why they are thinking and acting in that way is the next step to securing understanding and formulating a response: their facts, beliefs, opinions and even assumptions are important to establish before responding. 4. Restate. Now that you have refined your thinking, ask them to reformulate and restate their position. If they recognize their argument is based off of assumptions, prompt them to renew their wording before restating. 5. Repeat. With a new viewpoint in mind, you can return to the beginning of the process and challenge other nodes of thought. As the process continues, one's ideas will ideally be refined until their position is more grounded and critically engaged than before. This method becomes a cycle of dialogue. The goal of the Socratic Method is not to win an argument, rather, it's to findunderstanding, knowledge and truth at the heart of an idea. Learn more about theSocratic Method below.