Breaking the Cycle of Shame: Socratic Teaching Methods to Enhance Critical Thinking
This phenomenological study examines the process of increasing the critical thinking proficiency of academically underprepared millennial BSW students using the Paideia Socratic Seminar (PSS). This study explores both students’ dispositions toward engaging in critical thinking and what occurs when they do not fully comprehend or read course materials. Additionally, it explores how students manage the pressures of coursework and the conflict management methods they use. PSS is an innovative teaching strategy for increasing students’ critical thinking based on Socratic questioning. The setting is the author’s “Seminar in Helping” course, which is the first of five practice courses for BSW students. This course introduces the generalist intervention model of engagement, assessment, planning, implementation, evaluation, termination, and follow-up, and focuses on intellectual and social learning that increases critical thinking competency. Blackboard instructional methods supported basic knowledge instruction, and classroom discussions focused on higher-level cognitive learning.