Socrates Method Of Learning Essay

It is proved by various researches throughout the world that learning is possible when a learner is interested to learn. Learning is a self motivated activity. Everyone learns the knowledge, things and skills related to his or her own areas of interest. W. B. Yeats, an Irish writer says, “Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.”

Socrates Said “I cannot teach anybody anything, I just make them think.” Thinking is the first step of learning. Socrates method of teaching was Questioning method. He used to pose a series of questions in order to promote critical thinking in his students. His students start thinking in a scientific way; examining opinions, ideas, hypotheses by inquiring, experimenting, analyzing and drawing

This is how knowledge is constructed. Today’s students are not passive vessels to be filled with knowledge but they are knowledge creators. Alving Toffler says, “The illiterate of the future will not be the person who does not read. It will be the person who does not know how to learn.” Sense of inquiry should be developed in students so they can become knowledge creators and know how to learn.

When we trace the etymology of the word ‘Inquiry’ we find that this word is derived from the Latin word ‘inquirere.’ It is based on the root word, ‘quarere’ which means ‘seek’ and the prefix ‘in’ means ‘into’ and to seek is an attempt to find, a desire to obtain and to ask for something (Norris, 2012). Therefore inquiry means to seek information, to ask for something and look into the matter for truth. In American English this word is spelled as Inquiry whereas in British English it is spelled as Enquiry but both of them mean the same