Re:The Socratic Method: Teaching by Asking Instead of by Tel...
by dalmo3 on Monday March 07, 2022 @04:07AM
(#30585672)
Ugh, this reminds me of the time my wife was taking programming classes and occasionally would come to me for help.
The only way it felt "right" for me to help her was to guide her into arriving at the solution herself.
So I would start asking questions to gauge where she was at and what she was doing next, then keep nudging her with ever more questions such as "what would you expect to happen if you do that" or "if your program is a series of steps and you want to arrive at step Y, what's the step X that comes before Y?"
It was hopeless. After just a few minutes both of us would get frustrated and give up. She'd often say she just wanted me to tell her what to do. I felt defeated and frankly narrow-minded for expecting her to think exactly like I do.
The only way it felt "right" for me to help her was to guide her into arriving at the solution herself.
So I would start asking questions to gauge where she was at and what she was doing next, then keep nudging her with ever more questions such as "what would you expect to happen if you do that" or "if your program is a series of steps and you want to arrive at step Y, what's the step X that comes before Y?"
It was hopeless. After just a few minutes both of us would get frustrated and give up. She'd often say she just wanted me to tell her what to do. I felt defeated and frankly narrow-minded for expecting her to think exactly like I do.