Metacognition

            Socrates’ designed his Socratic seminars to initiate dialogue, and not to create discussions or debates. Students would examine a text, and respond to it by carefully listening and not interrupting each other.

            In this sense I believe that I was somewhat successful in the first Socratic seminar of my life. I was able to generate meaningful points, although few, and analyses during the course of the exercise, and I was able to listen intently to my peers. Additionally, I feel that the group as a whole was able to effectively discuss, and ultimately criticize, the paragraph.

            In due course I would like to improve both my listening and my participation skills, as well as build up my analyzing ability.  To do this I plan to utilise my preparation time more efficiently by planning what I will say, and also by making notes in the margins.

            If I were to give myself a label based on my performance in this first discussion, I would call myself the “quiet listener.” I would say this because although I did contribute, I spent most of the time intently listening to and absorbing what my peers had to say. Perhaps that is a good thing though, because the famous proverb does say that “we were given two ears but only one mouth.”