Monday 7 August 2023

the maieutic method of teaching and learning

First of all, how do we pronounce this word?

Pronunciation of Maieutic | Definition of Maieutic - YouTube

And what does the word mean?

Maieutic Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster

It's about philosophy - with a minute's overview:

Methods of Ancient Argument (Elenchus, Maieutic, and Endoxic) - YouTube

It's a method to teach and learn:

a method of teaching by question and answer; used by Socrates to elicit truths from his students

What is Maieutic Method | IGI Global

Here's a little more:

It is a method implemented by Socrates where he helps the interlocutor “give birth” to ideas and discoveries. The underpinning to this idea was that the “new knowledge” was already latent in the interlocutor.

General views of the Socratic Method consist of it being a dialectical exchange based on probing questions concerning a topic. While this definition may prove practical, it may not do justice to the broad nature and practice of the instructional strategy. It is, therefore, equally important to explore how maieutic questioning grounds the Socratic Method as a viable instructional strategy. By realizing the maieutic process as giving birth to discoveries, educationists and students are given a clearer framework in implementing the Socratic Method in educational experiences. In further elucidating this claim, this chapter first draws from the maieutic practice found in Plato's dialogues. Second, the chapter explores research on maieutic questioning in teaching and learning experiences. Lastly, a recognition of both Socrates' original maieutic practice and the modern conception of it are advanced as strategies educationists can implement in their courses.

What is Maieutic Method | IGI Global

It's therefore only one part of the Socratic method of teaching and learning:

Socratic questioning - Wikipedia

But it is different to the traditional understanding of the Socratic method:

I offer a reading of one of Plato's later works, the Sophist, that reveals it to be informed by principles comparable on the face of it with those that have emerged recently in the field of critical thinking. As a development of the famous Socratic method of his teacher, I argue, Plato deployed his own pedagogical method, a ‘mid-wifely’ or ‘maieutic’ method, in the Sophist. In contrast to the Socratic method, the sole aim of this method is not to disabuse the reader or learner of her false opinions. Rather, its purpose is to supply her with the skills and dispositions as well as the claims and counter-claims she needs to critically evaluate a view, and so facilitate knowledge acquisition, for herself. But the text does not merely teach critical thinking in this indirect manner. One of the strategies its author employed was to encourage the reader/learner to consider under what conditions a claim or idea would be false. To the extent that it achieves this, the Sophist provides both a model and an application of that particular kind of critical thinking in the learning environment that Jonathan Baron has described as ‘active open-mindedness’.

Platonic Dialogue, Maieutic Method and Critical Thinking - LEIGH - 2007 - Journal of Philosophy of Education - Wiley Online Library

Here's how to do it:

MAIEUTIC – Geeks for Education toolkit

And:

How to Use the Socratic Method In Your Middle or High School Classroom | Edutopia

Here's a perspective from a music teacher in Thailand:

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