Socratic Dialogue is a classical teaching approach that traces its origins to the conversations Socrates had with his students. At its core, this method involves a teacher posing a sequence of probing questions, guiding students to identify flaws or inconsistencies in their ideas. Through this process, students not only enhance their logical reasoning abilities but also gain a deeper understanding of the subject at hand. It is used widely within philosophy circles and I have found success using variations of Socratic Dialogue in my high school English and History classrooms. However, a significant constraint with the Socratic Method is the difficulty to scale the pedagogy sustainably in larger classrooms.

This is where ChatGPT can step up to the plate.

Many people seem focused on what Generative AI can do for them. They are “product” focused. However, personally, I have found the best use of this emergent technology is its ability to help me think about the topic I am learning about. This AI technology excels when used to enhance our thinking “process”.

ChatGPT can be prompted to effectively take an individual through a Socratic Dialogue. It can “act as an expert in the Socratic Method”.

Here is a basic example prompt that could be used in any Year 10 History classroom across Australia. It can take an individual through a Socratic Dialogue about the complexities of World War 2:

ChatGPT reads each individual response and then adapts the next question to keep the conversation moving in a productive direction.

To summarise the sequence of my conversation above: I responded by giving a simple reason that Japan and Germany both had expansionist agendas across their geographic regions. ChatGPT then asked me specifically how the “Treaty of Versailles” had a role in creating the conditions that led to World War 2. I gave a quick summary and the chatbot then took me to the “policy of appeasement”. I gave what I knew and then was asked about the “Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact”. When I said I didn’t know. It reminded that it was the temporary agreement between Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939 that allowed Hitler to initially invade Poland without intervention.

The strength of the prompt template above is it’s simplicity and can be used for countless topics you or your students are learning about.

Here are some more examples:

Year 10 English text

Year 8 Science content description

However, the problem with the simplicity of the prompt template above is you can find yourself in an infinite loop of questions. The conversation seems to never end. The prompt can also get very technical, very quickly. This can be an enjoyable activity for someone with a genuine expertise in a domain. However, diving into the complex nuances about a topic too soon will likely demotivate many school-aged young people.

Hence, the prompt I have been trialing recently has been variations of the following:

and another example for Year 12 English:

This prompt seems to keep ChatGPT’s questions more routine and familiar if a student is only giving basic answers. It also helps ChatGPT to know when it should stop the conversation and attempt to give some productive feedback.

With this prompt as a template, we now have significant potential for a rich formative assessment activity. Here are some educational benefits:

1. Adaptive
   • Students can be given this type of prompt to paste into ChatGPT and the conversation will be driven by the the level of knowledge and understanding of each student. Some conversations will hover along the surface (like my conversation about World War 2). While other conversations will deep dive into a complex analysis of the specifics of what the student has been learning.
2. Instant feedback
   • As students are answering each question, they are receiving feedback on their responses. With this prompt, ChatGPT often provides further content knowledge about the specific element being discussed. At the end of the conversation, to dig deeper, I often give a follow up prompt such as, “give me feedback on how I could have specifically brought more depth to my responses”, to receive a summary of further constructive feedback.
3. Opportunity for retrieval practice
   • Daniel Willingham states “Memory is the residue of thought, meaning that the more you think about something, the more likely it is that you’ll remember it later.” By asking students to discuss what they are learning, they are more likely going to remember what they were thinking about. This is called Retrieval Practice and for good reason, it has become very popular across F-12 education. However, often this form of revision can be too narrowly focused on surface knowledge. Socratic Dialogue is a form of retrieval practice for deep knowledge (what Jared Cooney Horvath calls “Concept Formation, Concept Shifting and Concept Testing”).

Things to consider:

• This task is noticeably more reliable, adaptive and understands the level of complexity required when being completed with ChatGPT4 (paid version) compared to the free version (GPT3.5). When this emergent technology inevitably improves over the next year or two, this concept I am trialing will have further potential.
• Currently it works best with language-rich domains. Don’t try this prompt with anything mathematical. ChatGPT isn’t there yet. It can work for basic scientific concepts, but the more technical the topic, the more ChatGPT3.5 struggles and will often start either going too complex or make up false information.
• This is not a teaching tool. The bulk of the learning should have taken place before attempting this activity. Without adequate schema in long-term memory, this task will be shallow and more likely going to end up with silly or lazy responses from students who don’t have the sufficient self-efficacy to engage meaningfully.
• Have students share you a link to their completed Socratic Dialogue transcript and this activity turns into a powerful formative assessment tool (and potentially one day, even summative?).

Give it a go! Paste this simple template with any topic you’d like to discuss into ChatGPT:

“As an expert in the Socratic Method, assess my knowledge and understanding by asking me one question at a time about [insert topic here]. Do you understand?“*

*I get in the habit of concluding the prompt with “Do you understand”. The act of paraphrasing my request usually keeps ChatGPT3.5 on track. Without it, the chatbot can often just produce a script of a fictional Socratic conversation between two people.

Helpful resources on this concept can be found here, including:

• Additional prompts
• Reasoning behind the “prompt crafting”
• Examples