<p>Someone enjoys the Socratic method??? Much different from what my law school friends would say! </p>
<p>I would agree with some of the comments above, that the style of teaching will vary greatly based on the department/subject, the professor teaching and the size of the class. Psych. is generally a very popular department with larger classes. Professors are accessible and often very willing to meet with students out of class though to continue discussing things. And as long as they haven’t changed this in the past couple of years, there is a “Take your professor to lunch” program, so while this on its own is not engaging in the Socratic method, it would enable your daughter a chance to interact more in depth with her professors. </p>
<p>Recitations for large classes and generally small/seminar type classes are still usually great for engaging in thoughtful and highly intellectual conversations though. I would say that I did not really experience any “Socratic” style teaching in my depts. (Soc. and Gov’t), but student led discussion was highly encouraged and I still found it to be highly rewarding to my intellectual development. </p>
<p>My advice would be to look less at a certain teaching style (that will be difficult to generalize for a single department let alone an entire school) and instead look at some of the related issues - courses/programs available, class size, whether large classes have related recitation/discussion sections and examine “fit” from that angle. To me, it sounds like a liberal arts school might be a better “fit” based on your daughter’s educational wish list (at least, this has been the case for many of my friends who went the LAC route). However, and this is a big HOWEVER, also balance this with the resources and opportunities available at research universities like UVA. While UVA may be more “on your own” in many ways, I found this to be incredibly helpful when transitioning from undergrad to work, and even from employment to graduate school.</p>