Story telling is an integral part of Preschool Pedagogy. Socratic
Seminar is an education method which has a significant effect on a
student’s ability to think logically. Preschool story telling can be
organised as kindergartener’s Socratic seminar by careful and
diligent planning by an early childhood educator.
Let’s see what is a Socratic Seminar? Socratic seminars are based
on the philosopher Socrates’ belief in importance of asking
questions, prize inquiry over information and discussion over debate
and social nature of learning.
An Early Childhood Educator can organise the Socratic Seminar in
the classroom for the development of the domains - Language
Development, enhancing critical thinking and development of Personal, Social and Emotional Development.
Here are few pointers for organising story telling in the Socratic
Seminar way.
Step 1 -Choosing the story. The first step in Socratic Seminar is
“choosing a text”. For Kindergartener, this is all about carefully
choosing an age appropriate story.
Step 2 – Telling the Story. The second step is “preparing the
students”. For the kindergartners, teacher reads the story to them.
Teacher asks general discussion questions to ensure that children
are comprehending the story.
Step 3 – Preparing the Questions. Step three in Socratic Seminar is
“preparing the questions”. In Kindergarten, teacher uses the flash
cards to ask questions. This arouses a students’ curiosity, leading
them to ask questions and inquire into a story line and content.
Teacher generates as many open-ended questions as possible, aiming
for questions whose value lies in their exploration, not their answer.
Step 4 - Establishing Student’s Expectation: This is the fourth step
in Socratic Seminar. Children are given a soft ball in their hand, and
whosoever is holding the soft ball will only speak. This helps the
kindergartener to learn how to take turn in conversations.
Step 5 - Establishing Teacher’s Role. Teacher resists the urge to
correct or redirect. Teacher comes in only if children do not follow
the established norms of taking turn.
Step 6 - Assessment Effectiveness. In preschool every activity is
followed by pedagogical assessment and documentation. The
observation tools specific to domains help the teacher in doing the
pedagogical documentation.
For the duration of his time on earth, Socrates devoted his life to
shaping young minds, making masters from students, and encouraging
people to actively educate themselves as a matter of principle. The
very method has been hailed as a moulder of young minds, and as an
epistemological tool for perfecting a student’s ability to “think
critically”. Early childhood educators can effectively integrate Story
telling – the Socratic Seminar way in their classroom pedagogy.
For more information on Observation Tools and Socratic Seminar
Discussion cards, Early Childhood Educators and School Leaders can
contact Sakalya Centre for professional Development at
About the author:
Lt Col Bincy K Thomas(Retd) is the Co-founder and Director of Sakalya Wisdom Foundation, an organisation committed to design and offer meaningful educational services and activities. She is the Director of Sakalya Prep,The Holistic Preschool, Whitefield Bangalore. She is the Trainer and Pedagogy Expert in Sakalya Centre for Professional Development, training centre for Teachers Professional Development, School Leaders Development Programs and Parenting Programs. She is researching into creating a dynamic holistic early childhood pedagogy. Presently She is pursuing Certificate in Early Education Leadership from Harvard Graduate School of Education, USA. Other areas of her interests are world mythologies, philosophy, social, emotional and spiritual development, leadership, gardening etc
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