Just Tell Me the Answer!: the Socratic Method

Socrates condemned to drink hemlock:
Is this where the Socratic Method leads?

The Death of Socrates

1787 Jacques Louis David: World History Archive/Alamy 

Teaching and tutoring are not supposed to be lecturing. Students have to speak up in discussion. Supposedly a good teacher/tutor uses the Socratic Method of questioning, in which the tutor asks a series of questions, nudging the student in a certain direction until the student figures out the answer herself.

But in this method, the more the student talks, the more she feels like she is dominating the discussion. Once a student of mine became very upset because she said she didn't come to a tutor to have to do the work by herself. Basically she was thinking "Why are we paying so much money if I'm doing all the talking. We should be paying the teacher to teach me."

She thought since I was the teacher I should tell her the answers, she'd learn it, and we'd get a lot more done in the time we had.
This is a conundrum I have been thinking about.

Of course in the questioning, the tutor is pulling all the invisible strings to lead the student to the conclusion the tutor has in mind (though a clever student can surprise the teacher with a creative answer). The student is getting the benefit of the tutor's wisdom invisibly, and it's only an illusion that the student is doing all the work. The tutor is working at least as hard.

But the problem remains: so much time is used up in the long process of questioning! Five or ten minutes of Socratic questioning really adds up. Is it worth it? The teacher could be enlightening the student with all she knows during that time.

What it boils down to is, is the Socratic Method really a superior method of tutoring? By forcing the student to think for herself, does this translate into the student learning to think better on her own?

I do not know. But I prefer the Socratic Method both as a teacher and tutor. A good point can be made for it: when the student arrives at the answer, they give a start like they have been jolted: it is an "aha!" moment. It is so satisfying to both student and tutor, that it's easy to believe in the method as the best.