Fired for making students think with the Socratic Method
I love this style of teaching, If you haven't heard of it before you are missing out. For more detailed information about it click this Wikipedia link . The basic principle is that you can teach any subject by asking questions. The strangest proof I have found of this is teaching binary math. This method develops students and helps them become great workers reflecting on issues and thinking laterally around problems. And a Lecturer in america was fired for using it. Read the story here. 
I wanted to say I can't believe students complained but my own experiences as a trainer, educator and lecturer has shown this too me personally. Some students don't want to be encouraged to think for themselves, instead that want nice neat presentations of facts and the theories that they can hear, memories and repeat but rarely understand. I hate limiting my own style to this industrial revolution approach to education. I always want to teach people in an interactive style where they learn from the process as much as from my delivery. But this approach isn't always popular. I think there are two reasons why the Socratic Method is unpopular with students. Firstly some students have a lazy attitude and can't be bothered to think they want all education to be something they can just sit through and let wash over them rarely making an impression. I believe you find these students stressing when it comes to writing essays and cramming before exams because they never understood the subject. Secondly some students hate group work and interaction in front of a group. These students would happily engage in discussion and the Socratic method on a one to one basis but not in groups. Students that feel this way may rightly feel their learning styles are not be accounted for. This proves that whilst the Socratic method is good it should not be the only method employed. Instead good educators should use a range of methods.
But why do education authorities dislike this method. The article I linked to suggested that it is because it is harder to measure and report/record learning from the Socratic method. The education system of the west is so focused on measurable results that they can put into neat tables. Whilst this creates good league tables I believe it does not help develop good workers, preparing them for careers in modern professions. Until the western education system drops its obsession with results the Socratic Method will remain unpopular and good educators will loose their jobs for making students think.
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