Some Thoughts on the Socratic Method

1984 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 6-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ethan M. Fishman
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Higher Learning ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
Socratic Method ◽  
Teaching Techniques ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Learning ◽  
Question And Answer ◽  
History Of ◽  
Pedagogic Tool ◽  
The University

The Socratic method was the major pedagogic tool at the first great Western university, Plato's Academy, and continues to be respected, at least in theory, by teachers at our institutions of higher learning. Yet today many of Plato's heirs in the university community seem to hold several perhaps innocent but nonetheless serious misconceptions concerning the Socratic technique. As a political scientist interested in the history of political philosophy, I have developed some thoughts on this subject in response to repeated inquiries by colleagues and students alike.One popular inaccuracy describes the Socratic method as an openended question and answer process. Actually, the Socratic approach has a singular purpose, namely the search for truth, and it is this explicit goal rather than an informal procedure of give and take which distinguishes the Socratic method from other teaching techniques.

John W. Boyer, The University of Chicago: A History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015), 676pp. ISBN: 9780226242514

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger L. Geiger
Keyword(s):  
Higher Learning ◽  
University Of Chicago ◽  
Democratic Institution ◽  
American Universities ◽  
American Higher Education ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Learning ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of The University ◽  
The University ◽  
University Of Chicago Press

This chapter reviews the book The University of Chicago: A History (2015), by John W. Boyer. Founded in 1892, the University of Chicago is one of the world’s great institutions of higher learning. However, its past is also littered with myths, especially locally. Furthermore, the university has in significant ways been out of sync with the trends that have shaped other American universities. These issues and much else are examined by Boyer in the first modern history of the University of Chicago. Aside from rectifying myth, Boyer places the university in the broader history of American universities. He suggests that the early University of Chicago, in its combination of openness and quality, may have been the most democratic institution in American higher education. He also examines the reforms that overcame the chronic weaknesses that had plagued the university.

scholarly journals Old Pedagogies for Wise Education: A Janussian Reflection on Universities

Philosophies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 64
Author(s):  
Zane M. Diamond
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Scaling Up ◽  
Essential Elements ◽  
Higher Learning ◽  
Learning Modalities ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Learning ◽  
History Of ◽  
The University ◽  
Methodological Aspects ◽  
Key Terms

This paper presents a synthesis of time-honoured pedagogical approaches to develop wisdom suitable to address the urgent problem-solving requirement of the modern university. During these last 30 years, I have employed a range of critical, interpretivist, qualitative research methods to examine archival and archaeological evidence and conduct cross-cultural and often comparative and international case studies to study wisdom. My central concern has been to understand how teachers across diverse locations throughout history have learned to develop wisdom and how they have educated others to such understandings. As part of this work, I examined the modern university and its capacity to engage with local knowledge and wisdom. Over the course of analysis, I find that one of the constraints of scaling up institutions for learning wisdom into the now global model of the university is that universities have forgotten how to develop wisdom in the race towards industrialisation, colonisation, and neo-liberalism within the scientific paradigm. One of the early sacrifices of such scaling up was the ability of the university to preserve an intention to develop the wisdom of its students. Therefore, distant memory now is the ideation of wisdom that many societies and civilisations, and their institutions of higher learning, are in danger of forgetting the pedagogical pathway to do so. The paper begins with an examination of the long history of pedagogies for the development of wisdom. I then briefly discuss the methodological aspects of this paper and explain my key terms: information, knowledge and wisdom, followed by an examination of wisdom through the lens of the teaching and learning modalities of the Oral, Written, and Printing. My synthesis of wisdom artefacts and stories about pedagogy suggests that while wisdom is individually sensed, understood, and lived phenomenologically, its meaning is latent, socially agreed, and constrained in terms of how and if universities might cultivate its essential elements. Taking a Janussian backward- and forward-looking view, I propose a remembering and reconnecting approach to educating for wisdom through purposeful consideration of what we know about time-honoured pedagogies for teaching and learning wisdom, what are its current constraints, and what are its future opportunities in the university into the new postmodern, planetary, virtual education era.

scholarly journals Deep Knowledge: A Strategy For University Budgetary Cuts

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 145-158
Author(s):  
Douglas B. Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
Business Model ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Academic Programs ◽  
Higher Learning ◽  
Social Value ◽  
Budget Cuts ◽  
Deep Knowledge ◽  
Cost Cutting ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Learning ◽  
The University

During and after the Financial Crisis of 2008, many institutions of higher learning have had revenue and budgetary reductions, forcing them to make severe university budget cuts and university reductions in force.  Often the university cuts are preceded by a process of evaluation of academic programs where institutions determine what they stand for and value.  One option, when forced to downsize, is to use a business model, such as Sullivan (2004) explains, where high-value, low-cost programs are kept and low-value, high-cost programs are cut.  However, a business model of education does not reflect the true social value of education or the importance of arts, sciences and humanities, where students learn how to struggle with, write about and understand the world.  John Henry Cardinal Newman’s (1852) treatise, The Idea of a University, suggests an alternative strategy of cost cutting that has to do with deep knowledge, i.e. keep the oldest programs in existence on a given university.  Using the deep knowledge concept, a university will cut young (junior programs) first and retain old (senior) programs until the very last, rather than deciding cuts based on a business model.  The deep knowledge concept emphasizes a Socratic ideal where professors and students wrestle over concepts, such as the meaning of “beauty.”

SURVEY ON STUDENTS' PERCEPTION ON UNIVERSITY LEADERSHIP RESPONSIVENESS TO ADDRESSING THEIR CONCERNS

2021 ◽  
pp. 120-130
Author(s):  
Jacklyne Alari ◽  
Maurice Okoth
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Higher Learning ◽  
Traumatic Experiences ◽  
Student Needs ◽  
University Leadership ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Learning ◽  
Timely Feedback ◽  
The University ◽  
Analyze Data

Abstract Students' experience in institutions of higher learning can be a factor of make or break for the institution. Good students' experience is a great marketer of the institution through referrals of word of mouth by alumni and bad experiences can be great de-marketer. It is important that the universities strive to deliberately improve on students' experience. Research indicates that great students' experience in universities promotes peaceful co-existence, enhances academic performance and minimize disruption to teaching and learning. Enhanced students experience is directly proportional to good handling of students' complaints as they may come up from time to time. The study was guided by the following objectives: What are the major students concerns in the universities in Kenya? Is the University leadership aware of the students concerns? How does the University leadership address the major students concerns? A survey was conducted, data was randomly collected using digital google forms questionnaires. A total of 167 respondents participated in the study. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze data. Quantitative data was analyzed directly using the google forms application as responses were received. Qualitative data was analyzed by creating themes and developing a narration. Results show that the major students concerns are: Stressful/traumatic experiences, academic issues and social issues. The findings also reveal that the university leadership is aware of the concern however there are serious lapses in addressing students' concerns. The lapses are systemic, policy related, legislative, leadership, governance resulting to unsatisfying or no responses. The study recommends that there is need for timely feedback by University leadership on the key students concerns. Further there is need for a structured platform of feedback that is interactive and friendly. These include but not limited to dialogue; constant monitoring of student needs in order to improve the general students' experience in universities.

Growing a University’s Technological Infrastructure

2011 ◽  
pp. 86-99
Author(s):  
Stephen R. Rodriguez
Keyword(s):  
Higher Learning ◽  
Maturity Model ◽  
Student Body ◽  
Technological Infrastructure ◽  
Administrative Services ◽  
Planning Models ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Learning ◽  
Strategic Plans ◽  
The University ◽  
The Impact

This chapter considers concepts, planning models, and related processes associated with infrastructure growth at institutions of higher learning. The author offers various definitions of infrastructure, describes an infrastructure maturity model, and discusses strategies and models for related strategic planning. In addition, the chapter provides portions of actual strategic plans related to infrastructure. The chapter closes with a description of how the author’s home institution has grown its technological infrastructure in order to provide required administrative services, communications, and instruction to a growing student body engaged in an expanding curriculum. The impact of infrastructure growth on the university community is also discussed.

Ethnicity, Tribalism, and Xenophobia in a South African Rural-Based University

2021 ◽  
pp. 152-172
Author(s):  
Mavhungu Abel Mafukata
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
South African ◽  
Higher Learning ◽  
South African Government ◽  
The South ◽  
African Government ◽  
Ethnic Tensions ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Learning ◽  
The University

The South African government has lobbied institutions of higher learning to recruit academics from across Africa to address the challenge of shortage of skills. Some universities have indeed exploited this opportunity. However, it has emerged that these nationals get to face unbearable anti-social behavior from the locals. Among others, these expatriates contend incidences of tribal-ethnic tensions and xenophobia. Multiple theories were adopted to assist the analysis. The results revealed that there was evidence of tribalism, ethnicity, and incited xenophobia at this university. Furthermore, the study found that the acts of tribalism and ethnicity cut across the university community. The study revealed that deaneries and departments reflected ethnic-tribal orientations depending on the tribes of the respective incumbents in those sections. The university should recognise that it has become a space of cultural diversity where people should be recognized outside the ethnic and tribal framework of locality.

The American University Today

Worldview ◽  
1969 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 13-14
Author(s):  
Bernard Murchland
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Higher Learning ◽  
Major Power ◽  
American University ◽  
The Past ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Learning ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The University

There are presently 6.7 million students in some 2200 American institutions of higher learning. Their numbers have doubled in the past ten years and will double again in the next ten.This statistic alone indicates that the university is no longer a shady retreat where scholars and students leisurely engage in the search for truth. The university has become a major power in our societal life. It shares with society in general a frenzied dynamism, the pursuit of immediate objectives, a labyrinthian structure and the lust for prestige. One couldn't imagine a university without, for example, a well-staffed public relations office. The American university today is in almost all senses of the word a new university.

The Political Economy of Brain Drain at Institutions of Higher Learning in Conflict Countries: Case of the University of Liberia

2002 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-46
Author(s):  
Anthony Barclay
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Information Dissemination ◽  
Higher Learning ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Research Information ◽  
Economic Growth And Development ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Learning ◽  
Training Research ◽  
The University

According to endogenous growth theories, human capital is a major determinant of economic growth and development. Human capital refers to the educational qualifications, skills, and experience that individuals possess. Educational institutions, in general, and universities, in particular, are most instrumental in developing and enhancing the quality of human capital through capacity building involving training, research, information dissemination, and knowledge management. These institutions should be not only firmly established and maintained but also continuously empowered to meet the current and evolving needs of their countries.

The History of Twentieth-Century Christianity as a Challenge for Historians

2002 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 585-599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hartmut Lehmann
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Church History ◽  
Higher Learning ◽  
Christian Churches ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Learning ◽  
History Of ◽  
Common Agenda ◽  
Church Historians

One hundred years ago, the discipline of church history was well established within institutions of higher learning in Western societies. The heirs of Leopold von Ranke and Philip Schaff were well versed in the range of topics that church history comprised. Church history was an integral part of the study of theology. Church historians published handbooks and had their own journals. All church historians—those with a Catholic and those with a Protestant affiliation, the members of state churches, and those belonging to church bodies, built on the principle of voluntarism—seemed to have a common agenda. This was the story of Christian churches throughout the centuries.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document