Teacher directs the Outer Circle – fundamentals and purpose

Following the principles and practices from Matt Copeland’s book Socratic Circles: Fostering Critical and Creative Thinking in Middle and High School, the teacher becomes participatory in the outer circle feedback. They direct students in offering timely, specific feedback to the inner circle’s conversation. This improves the quality of the dialogue for ongoing inner circle conversations moving forward. 

The outer circle –observes, critiques, suggests alternative ways of interacting, and sets a goal for future conversations.

Stated another way, the outer circle focuses on the inner circle’s behavior and process, reflecting on the experience of the inner circle conversation, assessing the quality of their dialogue, and establishing goals for future performance. Using a proven feedback form  similar to the one provided in Copeland’s book, the outer circle explores questions such as: Did the inner circle students explore more deeply beneath the surface meaning? Did mutual respect characterize their conversation? Were students asking questions, sharing their confusion, seeking clarity and supporting one another? What prevented new ideas emerging from the critical reading and thinking about the text?

   

The teacher in essence directs critical reflection by the outer circle students, following a cyclical process of the actual learning experience (inner circle dialogue), followed by reflective thinking, self-assessment, and goal setting (outer circle feedback). This process of action (inner), reflection (outer), further action (inner), further reflection (outer) fosters continual development of the inner circle dialogue, and of students’ ability to give and receive performance feedback that is specific, relevant, achievable and timely. Improving social behaviors and conversational skills are constantly reexamined.

Reflective thinking is thinking about what you have already done. “At the heart of this reflective thinking is the questioning of skills, perspectives, and inner circle behaviors that make up performance…The natural result of this reflective thinking and self-assessment is the establishment of goals for future learning…allowing students to become experts and guides of their own education” (Copeland, 2005, pp. 77-78). This becomes central to shifting responsibility for learning from the teacher to the student in the classroom. Refer to Copeland’s book for a proven and useful Socratic Circle Feedback Form to aid both student and teacher in this process, found on pages 79 and 152.

What has led to astonishing outer circle feedback in your experience?  What gets in the way?