KnowAtom's Blog

A strong Socratic dialogue can be helped by the layout of your class and how you organize students. We'll focus on three different formats for Socratic dialogue.

Choosing a Socratic Dialogue Format

The layout of your classroom and how students are positioned can go a long way toward getting students to be active participants. The format you choose will depend on your grade level and the familiarity of your students with Socratic dialogue.

To understand why Socratic dialogue is so important in a next generation science classroom, it’s important to first describe what exactly a Socratic dialogue is—and equally importantly, what it is not.

What a Socratic Dialogue Is:

There are 5 key features of all genuine Socratic dialogues.

A next generation science class is all about students learning how to work with ideas, both their own ideas and the ideas of others.

Innovative companies like iRobot face many of the same challenges as teachers and school districts that are adopting and beginning to implement the Next Generation Science Standards.

The Next Generation Science Standards have changed the game by shifting the expectations of teaching and learning. Anytime somebody is being asked to change the way they do their job, you have to anticipate that that's not going to be an easy transition.

Educators sometimes underestimate the shifts in teacher practices that are required under the Next Generation Science Standards.

Those educators responsible for choosing a curriculum will need to be critical consumers to avoid investing in resources that are superficially “aligned” to NGSS but don’t fully articulate the vision of the NGSS so students can achieve the levels of mastery that will be expected of them.

The Next Generation Science Standards envision students learning as scientists and engineers. This is really a new approach to learning that sets students up to be critical thinkers and innovators. It's no longer about doing science but about being scientists; not doing engineering but being engineers.

As classrooms begin to implement NGSS and work to achieve this vision, there are inevitably some challenges that will come to the forefront.

Effective implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) is not random or accidental. Rather, it requires a very intentional approach to putting the curriculum and performance expectations in place. It is unlikely – and probably impossible – that this will occur without careful attention to the correct approach.

There are seven principles of effective NGSS implementation that can guide teachers and administrators as they begin a new school year.

Summer is winding down, which means that most educators are back in the classroom.

The Lynn Public School district faces all of the challenges of an urban school district serving near 20,000 students daily. Lynn is also one of a few cities nationwide that serves as a refugee relocation point for the United Nations.

Due to low student performance on state science assessments and a desire to increase student engagement and teacher resources, Lynn Public Schools began partnering with GE Aviation to pilot KnowAtom in 2009, phasing in a pilot cohort of four schools over three years.

The dramatic increases in student engagement and proficiency levels on state-level science standardized testing (Massachusetts Common Assessment Program) led the Lynn Public Schools to scale the program to half the district for test year 2012 and finally district-wide in the following school year.

Here at KnowAtom, our focus is on helping districts align to the Next Generation Science Standards with authentic inquiry. In order to do this, we are focused on the three dimensions of the Next Generation Science Standards and the National Research Council's definition of effective STEM instruction. 

Establishing background knowledge requires nonfiction reading and Socratic dialogue, helping students connect new knowledge to their personal experiences and build important connections that will help them engage meaningfully with the content.

One of the key pieces that we need to consider is the new definition of effective STEM instruction.

The National Research Council (NRC) developed the definition back in 2011 and today it is very clearly reflected in the new Next Generation Science Standards. An ongoing trickle-down effect from the NRC’s thinking accounts for the multi-state collaboration we have today: the Next Generation Science Standards. Now, if we want to stay on the same page, we must all share a common definition of what it means to teach STEM concepts effectively. 

As districts begin to implement the Next Generation Science Standards, there is growing awareness that classrooms need to create inquiry environments where students engage as scientists and engineers.