I don’t remember where I saw it, but I thought some pamphlet mentioned a Socratic style of learning. It was something along the lines of a small class size allowing the professor and students to debate what the topic was – I also remember something about primary sources.
I swear this was UChicago related, but I can’t find it online anywhere. Anyone know if it is UChicago? I want to use it to finish up my essay.
Thanks in advance guys
That is pure UChicago. Your core HUMA and SOSC classes will be entirely discussion based and entirely focused on primary literature.
Run with it.
Awesome
Yeah, it’s why hum/sosc/civ is capped at 19 people (and nothing to do with any magazine ranking, nope, not at all)
Not to be nitpicky but just to be clear: HUMA and SOSC are discussion based but CIV generally is not - CIV courses are mostly lecture based with class sizes around 30 or more, though they do include a small-group discussion component that meets at a separate time from the lecture. A few CIV courses (generally focusing on Europe or America) have sections capped at 19 students because there a more instructors qualified to teach those courses, resulting in a greater number of smaller sections.
But yes, the decision to cap HUMA and SOSC at 19 students per section is by no means influenced by any run-of-the-mill college ranking. 
Regardless of the motive, however, the small class size does result in an objectively better quality of discussion.
I’m an outsider here, but
Former president Robert Maynard Hutchins was very big on the Great Books method of teaching, as well as Socratic dialogue.
Yet nothing in this thread so far reflects any understanding of Socratic dialogue.
Are y’all even clear what it means?
The current Chicago Core has very little to do with Great Books and nothing to do with Socratic teaching method. Socratic method is very rare outside of law and business schools, and increasingly rare there, too. That’s not to say that a particular professor might not use it some or even most of the time, but it’s very unusual, especially in a seminar with fewer than 20 students. (One of the great benefits of Socratic method in law schools is that in a large class the teacher can still engage in meaningful one-on-one dialogue at some point with every student. In a small class, you don’t need to resort to that to get everyone involved.)
What we generally mean by Socratic method is a form of teaching where the teacher will engage in a fairly extended dialogue with one student at a time, sometimes asking other students to interject their views. The teacher will teach by asking increasingly focused questions that force the student to be more clear about what he or she thinks, and that often expose flaws in the student’s previous answers. The goal is for the conclusions the teacher wants to reach should come out of the student’s mouth as a result of answering the questions, so that the student involved (and everyone else in the class) understands why that particular conclusion is logically necessary (and sometimes that no particular conclusion is logically necessary). Depending on the teacher, this Socratic dialogue may be with a student who has volunteered to do it, or with someone the teacher has picked out who really doesn’t have the option not to engage in the dialogue. Some teachers do it very gently, others delight in confusing and humiliating their students.
@JHS nicely explained. Handled well, Socratic Dialogue can shake one’s assumptions to the core! Few professors know how to do it these days, and even if they do, they might be reluctant, since it can look pretty aggressive from the outside.
I always think of The Paper Chase.
@ramboacid That’s incorrect. Euro Civ at least is all discussion based, not lectures. It’s nothing like a traditional intro history class.
@HydeSnark Thanks for the info, I was unaware. For the record, I did point out that Europe- and America-centric CIV courses were capped at 19 students and that the majority (note: not all) courses were lecture based. To best answer the OP’s question regarding class sizes and teaching style, the vast majority of CIV courses are, in fact, sizable lecture courses with separate discussion sections.
@ramboacid Yeah, civ is weird