Socratic Seminar Reflections
Socratic Seminar #1: Mindsets
1. Reaction: During the class socratic seminar, Tanner asked the group, “Can someone change mindsets?” As I read the article and annotated I wrote that question down to ask the group. When Tanner asked the question, my peers responded differently than I thought they would. Donald said he thought it would be easier to change from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. Michael disagreed and said he thought it would be easier to change from a growth mindset to a fixed mindset. I technically agree with both of my classmates. I personally think you can change mindsets as you age. I am glad that we got to discuss this so that I can hear all of the different viewpoints and reasoning to this question about the transitions of mindsets.
2. Explain: Participating in the socratic seminar simply confirmed my feelings on the article and fixed and growth mindsets. Before I had talked to any of my peers, I thought the article was bias and did not show very many different examples. It mainly talked about how mindsets affect you during sports. One opinion that somewhat influenced my thinking about mindsets was when Nicholas asked the group, “Do you think everyone needs practice? Whether or not you have a growth mindset or a fixed mindset.” I had previously thought about this while I read the article. I believe everyone needs practice. People are born with natural talent however everyone starts as a beginner and eventually becomes a master but everyone starts somewhere. I find this to be true with just about everything. When I sparked interest in dancing I kept putting off starting classes because I was scared I was not going to be good as the dancers but I was reminded by my mom and my dance teacher that everyone begins at different ages, levels, and maturity levels. This is the same with math. I had friends in middle school who didn’t have to study and would get an A+ on the test and I would study for hours and only end up with B. It is something that was very frustrating to me until I had the realization that everyone is different when it comes to talent.
3. Connection: The issues that we discussed in our socratic seminar were similar to what I discussed in my previous humanities class. One of our assignments last year was to create a lesson plan for our class based on our class reading. My partners and I hit a bump in the road when we had to make the lesson accessible for all students. We knew that not every single person was going to participate, would have completed the reading assignment from the night before, and might not be able to do our assignments because they did not follow previous instructions. We got together and found out creative and innovative ways to incorporate all types of learning and mindsets of our peers. For students with fixed mindsets, they simply had to fill out questions about the book chapters, but students with growth mindsets tried to answer our open question for our lesson. It was challenging but we had great discussion and we felt like we were real teachers because we had to be aware of different learning styles and different mindsets in the learning space.
4. Question: The following questions came up while I was reading the article for the first time, during the socratic seminar, and still unanswered questions I thought of after the socratic seminar.
1. What does the author’s definition of the “right mindset”?
2. Do those with growth mindsets always seem to “win”?
3. What does the study look and sound like? (Line 30)
4. How do the goals of different mindsets differ?
5. Does High Tech High do a good job of accommodating different mindsets?
Socratic Seminar #2: The Deepest Uncertainty
1.) Reflection: During today’s socratic seminar, Nicholas San Augustine proposed the question, “does your opinion about infinity get influenced by your religion?” to the other group. At first, I thought of course it is affected by your religion and beliefs but then Evan brought up the reason why someone might or might not be influenced by religion because of the concept of eternal life. I find this very interesting because it connects psychology with mathematics which is something that make math very intriguing to me. Another quote from today that really got me thinking was a question asked by Perla, “Is there different “versions” of infinity?” For example infinity as a number, space or something accounted for.
2.) Explain: After the socratic seminar my ideas generally remained the same, however my classmates proposed some very thought provoking questions that confirmed by feelings that infinity is not a number but a concept or idea. Also, discussing the text during the socratic seminar helped me to dissect the article and understand some of the eloquent language. One talking point during the conversation was that nothing can be proven or not proven. For me to change my opinion about the deepest uncertainty, known as infinity, the concept would have to had to be proven to me.
3.) Connection: I found a minor connection between today’s socratic seminar about the deepest uncertainty and what we are doing in biology when we discuss the timeline of the human genome project. The concept is hard for anyone to wrap their head around similar to infinity. Without discussing this topic with my peers today I would not be able to make connections to any other topics. Another connection to infinity and proving theories relates to Supreme Court cases that we are studying and reading about in Humanities. These cases have to be specific and concrete in order to prove and the same could be said about infinity.
4.) Questions: Why is the infinity symbol look like a sideways eight? To find this answer, I could simply research online. How would you describe infinity to a child? I would contact an elementary school teacher and inquire as to how to simplify the concept for the appropriate age of the child. How do mathematicians define infinity? I could find this answer by asking my math teacher and past math instructors as well as doing research on past famous mathematicians. I found this topic very interesting but very hard to grasp because it is something that has not completely been proven to me therefore, it is interesting to study but I am still left with many doubts and a lot of questions that will probably never be answered.
1. Reaction: During the class socratic seminar, Tanner asked the group, “Can someone change mindsets?” As I read the article and annotated I wrote that question down to ask the group. When Tanner asked the question, my peers responded differently than I thought they would. Donald said he thought it would be easier to change from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. Michael disagreed and said he thought it would be easier to change from a growth mindset to a fixed mindset. I technically agree with both of my classmates. I personally think you can change mindsets as you age. I am glad that we got to discuss this so that I can hear all of the different viewpoints and reasoning to this question about the transitions of mindsets.
2. Explain: Participating in the socratic seminar simply confirmed my feelings on the article and fixed and growth mindsets. Before I had talked to any of my peers, I thought the article was bias and did not show very many different examples. It mainly talked about how mindsets affect you during sports. One opinion that somewhat influenced my thinking about mindsets was when Nicholas asked the group, “Do you think everyone needs practice? Whether or not you have a growth mindset or a fixed mindset.” I had previously thought about this while I read the article. I believe everyone needs practice. People are born with natural talent however everyone starts as a beginner and eventually becomes a master but everyone starts somewhere. I find this to be true with just about everything. When I sparked interest in dancing I kept putting off starting classes because I was scared I was not going to be good as the dancers but I was reminded by my mom and my dance teacher that everyone begins at different ages, levels, and maturity levels. This is the same with math. I had friends in middle school who didn’t have to study and would get an A+ on the test and I would study for hours and only end up with B. It is something that was very frustrating to me until I had the realization that everyone is different when it comes to talent.
3. Connection: The issues that we discussed in our socratic seminar were similar to what I discussed in my previous humanities class. One of our assignments last year was to create a lesson plan for our class based on our class reading. My partners and I hit a bump in the road when we had to make the lesson accessible for all students. We knew that not every single person was going to participate, would have completed the reading assignment from the night before, and might not be able to do our assignments because they did not follow previous instructions. We got together and found out creative and innovative ways to incorporate all types of learning and mindsets of our peers. For students with fixed mindsets, they simply had to fill out questions about the book chapters, but students with growth mindsets tried to answer our open question for our lesson. It was challenging but we had great discussion and we felt like we were real teachers because we had to be aware of different learning styles and different mindsets in the learning space.
4. Question: The following questions came up while I was reading the article for the first time, during the socratic seminar, and still unanswered questions I thought of after the socratic seminar.
1. What does the author’s definition of the “right mindset”?
2. Do those with growth mindsets always seem to “win”?
3. What does the study look and sound like? (Line 30)
4. How do the goals of different mindsets differ?
5. Does High Tech High do a good job of accommodating different mindsets?
Socratic Seminar #2: The Deepest Uncertainty
1.) Reflection: During today’s socratic seminar, Nicholas San Augustine proposed the question, “does your opinion about infinity get influenced by your religion?” to the other group. At first, I thought of course it is affected by your religion and beliefs but then Evan brought up the reason why someone might or might not be influenced by religion because of the concept of eternal life. I find this very interesting because it connects psychology with mathematics which is something that make math very intriguing to me. Another quote from today that really got me thinking was a question asked by Perla, “Is there different “versions” of infinity?” For example infinity as a number, space or something accounted for.
2.) Explain: After the socratic seminar my ideas generally remained the same, however my classmates proposed some very thought provoking questions that confirmed by feelings that infinity is not a number but a concept or idea. Also, discussing the text during the socratic seminar helped me to dissect the article and understand some of the eloquent language. One talking point during the conversation was that nothing can be proven or not proven. For me to change my opinion about the deepest uncertainty, known as infinity, the concept would have to had to be proven to me.
3.) Connection: I found a minor connection between today’s socratic seminar about the deepest uncertainty and what we are doing in biology when we discuss the timeline of the human genome project. The concept is hard for anyone to wrap their head around similar to infinity. Without discussing this topic with my peers today I would not be able to make connections to any other topics. Another connection to infinity and proving theories relates to Supreme Court cases that we are studying and reading about in Humanities. These cases have to be specific and concrete in order to prove and the same could be said about infinity.
4.) Questions: Why is the infinity symbol look like a sideways eight? To find this answer, I could simply research online. How would you describe infinity to a child? I would contact an elementary school teacher and inquire as to how to simplify the concept for the appropriate age of the child. How do mathematicians define infinity? I could find this answer by asking my math teacher and past math instructors as well as doing research on past famous mathematicians. I found this topic very interesting but very hard to grasp because it is something that has not completely been proven to me therefore, it is interesting to study but I am still left with many doubts and a lot of questions that will probably never be answered.