Reflections on Socratic Teaching IIIB: Concluding Thoughts

This is the final post in a series inspired by Tanya Monestier‘s blog post on Socratic teaching.   The first post is here.  The second is here. The third is here.  

The context in which I want to situate Socratic teaching is that I tell my students that each semester is a 14-week-long conversation among friends about the law (followed by a grueling exam).  Joking.  My final exam this year accounts for only 50% of the grade.  Homework, class participation, and a midterm account for the other 50%.  Most of the homework consists of multiple choice questions in which they must justify their answers.  Homework is graded based on effort.  Students who provide the correct answers for the correct reasons know the material and should feel encouraged.  The homework is either easy for them or it forces them to do the work necessary to learn the material.  Students who get the answers wrong despite their efforts get full credit and probably get more out of the exercise than those who do well.  We go over the correct answers and why each incorrect answer is incorrect.  

The classroom should always be a comfortable space for my students.  I know that many people hate being in the spotlight and hate speaking in public.  But it is something that almost all lawyers have to do as part of their work.  My notion is not that students need to “get over” their anxieties; rather, I try to provide a space in which they can feel more comfortable speaking publicly and gain more confidence in their ability to do so.  A lot of students also have math anxiety, but they will have clients who are after a monetary recovery, and so making sure they know how to calculate damages just comes with the territory.

Two additional anxiety-reducing techniques:

First, I tell students that they should not worry about embarrassing themselves in class.  They may well feel embarrassed if they think they don’t do well during a Socratic exchange, but this is momentary and it passes.  Each student is so focused on their own performance, they pay no attention to the performance of others, beyond admiration for students who seem gifted at Socratic exchange.  My strategy is to meet students where they are so that everybody can eventually feel like they are gifted.  I also tell them that there can be value in getting things wrong.  Nobody else remembers it, but you do.  You remember what you said and that it was wrong.  You learn what is right.  Speaking in class is like malpractice insurance!  

I know from personal experience that this is true, because I honestly have no recollection of anybody else doing badly during Socratic exchanges when I was a law student.  I do remember some of my own gaffes.  I now know what I got wrong and what I should have said.  It’s been 25 years, but I’ve retained that knowledge, gained through the experience of not doing well in a Socratic exchange.  I don’t know if my telling students that nobody will remember their failings helps.  I hope it helps some. 

Every semester, there are a few 1Ls (never 2Ls or 3Ls) who come to me after class to apologize for their poor performance during Socratic exchange.  Unless the student was completely unprepared, I usually say, “You have nothing to apologize for.  I don’t remember things going badly.”  It’s almost always true.  I call on 20-30 students each session.  If they speak, they get credit.  We chat for a bit and I move on.  Eventually patterns emerge and I learn how to calibrate my Socratic questioning to a student’s skill set.  Some take longer than others to find their rhythms, but almost all are capable of getting to the point where Socratic exchanges go smoothly.

Second, I encourage students to take very few notes during Socratic exchange.  Mostly, we are just having a conversation.  At the end of the conversation, I give them the take-aways.  They can get those take-aways in their notes, if they like, but they don’t necessarily need to do even that.  Twice each semester, once before the midterm and once before the final exam, I give a comprehensive review session in which I speak an outline.  The review session is recorded, so they can take notes at their own pace or just listen and compare my review to their outlines.   I tell them all of the rules on which they will be tested at the level they will need to know to answer every question on the exam.  E.g., I may tell them about the exception to the rule, but if I don’t tell them about the exception to the exception, I will not be testing on that.  

This may sound like spoon-feeding, but law exams are not so much about reciting rules as they are about figuring out how to apply rules or deciding which rules apply to new factual scenarios.  This is where the “thinking on your feet” component of Socratic teaching meets up with skills that students will need, if not in practice, then at least for the bar over which they must leap in order to practice.

Finally, a note about efficiency.  It is unquestionably true that I could impart black-letter law through a lecture much more quickly than we tease it out through Socratic dialogue.  That’s what I do in my review sessions.  They take about three hours total.  But I can do that, with confidence that the students will retain the contents of the lecture, only because of what we’ve accomplished through Socratic teaching.  On the way, we’ve also covered all sorts of valuable but not testable topics as part of our 14-week conversation among friends about the law.

Since Professor Monestier inspired this series of posts, it makes sense to let her have the last word.  She concludes here post with advice designed to calm the nerves of students who approach Socratic teaching with trepidation.  I fully endorse these suggestions (with slight edits):

1. A cold call does not telegraph how well you will ultimately do “on your feet” in the real world. It is not even close to the context in which you will be required to speak in the real world. . . .

2. Over-preparing for fear of cold calls ultimately works to your detriment. Focus on preparing for the exam, not for cold calls. Try not to sit there in fear of being called on. If you’re called on, deal with it then.

3. Taking time to process things is completely normal. If it feels like other people are amazing in class and see things that you never would have thought of, just remember that you will get there too–maybe just a little slower. But who cares? All that matters is that you know the material for the exam (not that you know it when asked to recite it at the drop of a hat in class).