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Socrates In The Classroom Develops Students’ Thinking
When students have the opportunity to participate in “Socratic seminars” on a regular basis, a different classroom culture evolves. The students collaborate more and more voices are heard. The students develop their thinking skills in a cooperative and investigative atmosphere. This is shown in a new dissertation in Pedagogy by Ann S. Pihlgren at the Stockholm University in Sweden.
The Socratic dialogue is a particular way of developing children’s, as well as adults’, thinking skills through cooperative dialogue where significant human ideas and values are discussed. By participating in Socratic seminars regularly every other week, preschool children and older students develop their thinking skills. The seminars address literature and art work, with questions such as these: is Pippi Longstocking a good friend, is Jack stupid or smart when he sells his mother’s cow for some beans, or are we born good or evil? In the beginning the students have difficulty expressing their thoughts, but with time their ability to express themselves and to examine ideas critically and logically develops.
The study included seven groups of children, five to sixteen years old. The groups were filmed during three years of philosophizing in the classroom and the films were analyzed. The interaction in the classroom was positively influenced, according to Ann S Pihlgren. The teacher dominated less, more students spoke and the students gradually took over the responsibilities of the teacher to promote exploration in the dialogue. The ability to use the Socratic seminar is learned by students and teachers through practice and by testing the rules of the seminar. The students construct a supportive group culture through their silent interaction, where gestures, glances, and body language are used to show not only support or sympathy for each other, but also cooperation with each other when someone attempts to disturb or to provoke the dialogue. The teacher role changes to one of support, ensuring that the analysis is fruitful and that the dialogue is respectful.
Socratic methods have developed independently in various countries. They all describe a set of methodological steps to attain similar objectives. An opening question is answered by all participants and followed by cooperative, critical analysis. Finally, the new ideas are connected to the everyday life experience of the participants.
It seems as if this ritualized structure and the nurturing culture of the seminar provide a safe circle, helping the participants to try new, bold ideas that they might otherwise not have tested, Ann S. Pihlgren says. By cooperating when examining the ideas they also seem to learn a way to address problems on their own without teacher intervention.
To work with methods connected to the ancient philosopher Socrates may seem out-of-date in a modern school, but that is absolutely not the case, Ann S. Pihlgren states.
The Socratic seminars have been seen as a complement to traditional classroom teaching for hundreds of years. But it is not easy to learn how to stage them to get positive effects. It is especially hard for teachers, who often fall back to their traditional, controlling “teacher” roles. The dissertation offers excellent tools for teachers who want to develop students’ thinking and to foster cooperative group dialogue.
The name of the dissertation: Socrates in the Classroom. Rationales and Effects of Philosophizing with Children. The dissertation can be downloaded as a pdf here.
[Jonas Ablad @ Swedish Research Council]
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Make Projects: Small Form Factor PCs
Chances are you love playing music on your computer. And if you’ve ever longed to build a dedicated digital audio jukebox, now you can by following the instructions in an exciting new book from Make Projects — Small Form Factor PCs — can show you how.
Developed by the creative team that brings you Make — the groundbreaking magazine devoted entirely to DIY technology — and authored by Matthew Weaver and Duane Wessels, this latest title presents clear, easy-to-follow instructions for making your own easily customizable geeky devices by learning how to build and customize small form factor PCs from scratch.
“We want to show you how they work, how they look (inside and outside), and how you can use them,” write Weaver and Wessels. “We’ve written this book for people who like to tinker with both computer hardware and software.”
The book is also written for those of us who think smaller is better when it comes to computers. As Wessels elaborates, “Nobody wants a large, noisy, 200-Watt computer sitting on their entertainment center. And why use a full-size computer for your network firewall when a much smaller computer gets the job done while using only 1/10th the power? We want people to see how easy and fun it is to turn a small form factor computer into something that you can use in your home or workplace.”
The projects devised by Weaver and Wessels include all the necessary details for building eight different systems, from the shoebox-sized Shuttle system down to the stick-of-gum sized gumstix.
Thorough illustrations and step-by-step instructions make creating these projects easy:
- Digital Jukebox. Play your music collection with this Mini-ITX system that will fit anywhere
- Digital Video Recorder. Record and watch live television using a Shuttle ST62k-based system
- Network Appliances. Create and configure your own router and network monitor using embedded computers from Soekris
- Wi-Fi Extender. Extend the range of your Wi-Fi network with the Access Cube
- Portable Firewall. Protect your computer from unknown networks with a USB-powered firewall based on the OpenBlockS
- Handheld Wi-Fi Console. Turn the ZipIt Wireless Messenger into a go-anywhere, text-only, wireless handheld
- Tiny Bluetooth gizmo. Use the Bluetooth-powered gumstix computer to talk to cell phones, PDAs, and more
Shoebox sized and smaller, small form factor PCs can pack as much computing muscle as everything from a PDA to a full-sized desktop computer. Even better, they consume less power, have few or no moving parts, and are very quiet. Whether you plan to use one as a standalone PC or want to embed it in your next hacking project, this new up-to-the-minute resource from Make Projects is a must.
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