When Socrates Meets Confucius: Teaching Creative and Critical Thinking Across Cultures Through Multilevel Socratic Method

• Publication year: 2021

92 Nebraska L. Rev. 289. When Socrates Meets Confucius: Teaching Creative and Critical Thinking Across Cultures Through Multilevel Socratic Method

When Socrates Meets Confucius: Teaching Creative and Critical Thinking Across Cultures Through Multilevel Socratic Method

Erin Ryan with Xin Shuai, Yuan Ye, You Ran, and Li Haomei(fn*)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Introduction .......................................... 290

II. Where East Leaves West: Cultural Differences Between U.S. and Chinese Legal Education ..................... 294
A. The Predominant American Model ................. 294
B. The Predominant Chinese Model .................. 303

III. The Case Study ....................................... 313
A. Host University ................................... 313
B. Courses ........................................... 314
C. Language Issues .................................. 314
D. Methodology ...................................... 315
E. Instructor's Evaluation ............................ 320
F. Student Surveys .................................. 322
G. Multilevel Socratic East and West ................. 325

IV. Student Evaluation of Their Experiences with the Method ............................................... 328
A. Case-based Teaching vs. Theory-based Teaching . . . 329
B. Developing Critical-Thinking Skills vs. Learning the "One and Only Answer" ........................... 331

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C. Guided Discovery vs. Passive Reception ............ 333
D. The Value of Preparation Before Class ............. 335
E. Focus on Reasoning Process vs. Results ............ 335
F. Evaluation: Reasoning vs. Memorization ........... 336
G. The Importance of Law Teachers' Exposure to Practical Legal Experience ........................ 337

V. Reports from the Field on Adapting the Method in Chinese-Led Classes .................................. 338
A. Xin Shuai's Law Classes for Non-Law Majors ...... 338
1. Asking Questions Instead of Offering the Correct Answer ........................................ 339
2. Encouraging the Students to Defend Themselves .................................... 340
3. Results ........................................ 341
B. You Ran's Experience Teaching Law Majors ....... 341
1. Lesson Preparation Is Both the Teacher's and Students' Responsibility ....................... 342
2. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Small Group Discussions ............................. 342
3. The Challenges and Rewards of Implementing Socratic Teaching .............................. 343
4. Designing Proper Questions for Socratic Dialogue ...................................... 344
5. Students' Proposals to Integrate Socratic Teaching and Exam Preparation ............... 344

VI. Recommendations for the Future ...................... 345
A. In the East ........................................ 345
B. In the West ....................................... 347
C. Overall ............................................ 348

I. INTRODUCTION

This Article presents a case study of adapting the Socratic method to teach critical-thinking skills underemphasized in Chinese universities and group competency skills underemphasized at U.S. institutions. As we propose it here, Multilevel Socratic teaching integrates various levels of individual, small group, and full-class critical inquiry, offering distinct pedagogical benefits in Eastern and Western cultural contexts where they separately fall short. After exploring founda-tional cultural differences underlying the two educational approaches, this Article reviews the goals, methods, successes, and challenges we encountered in the development of an adapted "Multilevel Socratic" method, concluding with recommendations for further application in both contexts. It is co-authored by an American law professor and four Chinese university students: an undergraduate, a master's de-

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gree candidate, a doctoral candidate, and an experienced lecturer in law pursuing advanced graduate studies.

The Socratic method, popularized in American law schools, emphasizes the presentation of problems for discussion rather than material for memorization.(fn1) In the United States, law professors typically engage in Socratic dialogue with a series of individual students in the presence of a large class, inviting each student to individually consider questions that probe the rationales, implications, and alternatives of various ideas.(fn2) A Socratic teacher engages her students in strategic intellectual debate, forcing them to challenge the reasoning behind her purported conclusions, theirs, and the conclusions of other students. Ideally, the method facilitates an interactive classroom in which lively discussions stimulate engagement, participation, and epiphany.(fn3) Yet cultural norms in Chinese and other Eastern societies occasionally clash with the classroom roles required by the method, which compromises its effectiveness at engaging student participation and stimulating learning.(fn4) Such norms discourage students from challenging the teacher, engaging in apparent confrontation with other students, taking public risks, volunteering, or even calling attention to themselves or their own ideas.(fn5)

In tailoring the method for use in our Chinese law classes, our most significant modification was to adapt Socratic dialogue for use with peer-learning groups rather than focusing exclusively on individuals in series. Together with other participatory learning exercises, we balanced opportunities for students to brainstorm in partnerships and to think independently through problems posed by the instructor in the traditional Socratic style. We learned to rotate frequently between these approaches, often beginning with a round of small group dialogue (in which students explore the merits of a question in groups of three to five), then reconvening the full class to enable groups to compare their findings, and then shifting to more individualized dia-

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logue in which the teacher poses follow-up questions to specific students. We learned to shift frequently among different levels of inquiry, as determined by the unique direction of each discussion. We came to refer to our adaptation as the "Multilevel Socratic Method." Following the Chinese case study reported in this Article, the American and Chinese co-authors have continued to develop the model in both Chinese and American classrooms.

Multilevel Socratic dialogue maintains traditional Socratic strengths of inculcating creative- and critical-thinking skills but re-engineers classroom dynamics to engage wider student participation and a wider range of legal skills. It harnesses the tools of "peer instruction" that are increasingly lauded as a superior alternative to traditional lecturing.(fn6) The method provides a safe forum for student experimentation before ideas are shared with the large group, facilitating the experience of students reluctant to be singled out for cultural or other reasons. Of additional benefit to Eastern students, it reduces the risks of direct personal confrontation while still enabling the vigorous exchange of ideas missing in more traditional, lecture-oriented classrooms.

Of benefit to both Eastern and Western students, Multilevel So-cratic teaching ensures that every student participates actively in the reasoning process, rather than the select few that are called on directly in any given class using the traditional method. Interspersing discussion among small and large groups can improve the experience of students potentially marginalized by race, gender, or ideology in any dominant culture. Of particular benefit to American students, it also provides opportunities for students to build teamwork, collaborative creativity, and other group competency skills under-emphasized in American education. The additional layer of peer-accountability can also motivate more disciplined student performance in any cultural context.

What follows is the firsthand account of our cross-cultural voyage into the development of Multilevel Socratic teaching in China, yielding enhancements that can benefit students and teachers from all cultural groups. The American law professor, teaching in China for the year through the Fulbright Program, encountered great hunger among her Chinese students for participatory learning that more directly engaged them in their own educational experience. She also found that their creative- and critical-thinking skills were underdeveloped, in light of an educational culture that emphasizes recitation over analysis. The Socratic method was helpful for inviting students to focus more on the interesting questions raised by study material

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than the (often illusory) "right answer"-but the individual focus of traditional Socratic teaching caused cultural friction. Together, we developed a variety of techniques to encourage class participants toward a more inquisitive, reflective posture without offending local norms, culminating in the Multilevel Socratic Method. It took time for students to adapt to the new approach, but in the end, most made remarkable progress. Following the Chinese case study reported here, co-authors have continued to develop the model successfully in both Chinese and American classrooms.

In this Article, we share our experiences from our multiple perspectives as American and Chinese teachers and Chinese students at the undergraduate, graduate...