In today’s world, society and science and technology are developing rapidly, which puts forward higher requirements for human quality. The cultivation of human creative ability and the development of human intelligence are increasingly valued by people. Therefore, how to inspire students to use their brains to think in teaching, so as to develop students' thinking and creative abilities, has become a hot topic in research on teaching methods at home and abroad. It can be said that it must be called "inspiration". Heuristic teaching methods have become an important trend in the development of teaching methods at home and abroad.

From the perspective of the history of human education development, we in China usually regard Confucius as the originator of heuristic teaching method, while the West recognizes Socrates as the originator of heuristic teaching method. Confucius and Socrates were two great thinkers and educators in the history of the development of Eastern and Western civilizations. Their thoughts had an important impact on later Eastern and Western societies respectively. Interestingly, from a time perspective, they almost lived in the same historical period (Confucius was slightly more than half a century earlier than Socrates), and they independently proposed heuristic teaching methods. It is not accidental that an educational thought emerged at the same time in the ancient East and the West. It is an inevitable product of the development of human educational and teaching practice activities to a certain historical stage. This article intends to analyze and compare the similarities and differences between Confucius and Socratic heuristic teaching methods, and draw useful enlightenment to promote the continuous development of research and practice of teaching methods in my country.

Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC), whose surname was Kong, Qiu, and courtesy name Zhongni, was a native of Zou Yi (now Qufu, Shandong Province) of the state of Lu in the late Spring and Autumn Period. The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period when Confucius lived was an era of rapid social change. Slavery gradually collapsed, feudalism was gradually formed, and political turmoil was extreme. There was a situation where "the emperor lost his official position and learned from the barbarians". Confucius followed this historical trend and used his erudite talents to pioneer private education. He also put forward the glorious proposition of "education without distinction", recognized that everyone has the possibility of education, and for the first time popularized education to the common people, breaking the The monopoly of "learning in the government" since the Western Zhou Dynasty can be said to be a great feat in the history of Chinese education. Except for a short-term political career after he was over 50 years old, Confucius was mainly engaged in private lectures throughout his life. He was the first great educator in the history of ancient Chinese education. He was revered by later generations as the "Holy Teacher" and "Teacher for All Times".

Confucius’ heuristic teaching method is closely related to his epistemology. Confucius's epistemology is dualistic. He once said: "Those who are born knowing are the best; those who know by learning are the second; those who are tired and learn are the second; those who are tired and do not learn, the people are at the bottom." ①Here Confucius proposed that there are people who are "born with knowledge", which is obviously an idealist point of view. However, "knowing by birth" is just a "phantom" for Confucius. What he emphasized in practice was "knowing by learning", which objectively negated the transcendental concept of "knowing by birth". It is under the guidance of the idea of ??"knowing through learning" that Confucius summed up a set of educational ideas and teaching methods in educational practice that are in line with the general laws of human understanding. The heuristic teaching method is a successful teaching method that Confucius often used in teaching practice and made his teaching popular among students, making them successful in their studies.

The book "The Analects of Confucius" is a record of Confucian teaching. It records Confucius' wise sayings about inspiring teaching: "If you are not angry, you will not enlighten, if you are not angry, you will not be angry. If you do not use three things to reflect on one thing, you will not be able to do it again." also". The word "enlightenment" and the idiom "draw inferences from one example" in modern Chinese come from this. Zhu Xi, a famous scholar in the Song Dynasty, noted: "Angry people are those who seek to understand the meaning but fail to get it. Angry people are those who want to speak but cannot. Qi means to open up the meaning. Fa means to reach the words." ② That is Confucius. It is believed that when students are actively thinking about a certain problem and cannot find a solution for the moment, they should be inspired; when students have thought about a certain problem but have gained it, but it is not very clear and they cannot express it. enlighten. If the teacher has enlightened the students on the most critical point they doubt, but cannot arouse the students' association, analogy and reasoning, Confucius believes that there is no need for the teacher to explain it anymore, because this shows that the students do not actively think and rely only on the teacher's There is no point in lecturing. In teaching practice, Confucius also conscientiously implemented his above-mentioned propositions. Through "The Analects" we can find that Confucius was very good at using the question-and-answer method in actual teaching to promote students' independent thinking. Sometimes students asked a question, and Confucius gave a simple answer to arouse students' questioning and thinking. The students asked questions step by step, and Confucius's answers became more profound each time. This way of answering questions is both targeted and enlightening, and it also reflects Confucius's "treating questions well". Sometimes Confucius did not answer students' questions directly, but raised questions from the students' questions, or asked a rhetorical question to let the students think and express their opinions. Finally, Confucius agreed or denied the students' opinions. Sometimes Confucius seemed to know nothing about the question and was "empty". Instead of giving a positive answer, he tried his best to ask questions from both sides of the question, inspiring the questioner to think, overcoming doubts, and finally arriving at the correct answer. The conclusion is that "knock on both ends and it will be exhausted." This shows that Confucius's heuristic teaching is flexible and vivid.

Socrates (469 BC - 399 BC) was a great thinker and educator in ancient Greece. He was born into a civilian family. His father was a sculptor and his mother was a midwife. He was the first philosopher in the history of Western philosophy to "concentrate on the determination of the principles of material and natural phenomena and transfer it to the study of life affairs, moral issues and human theory issues."

Although Socrates lived in the heyday of slavery, democracy, and democracy in Athens, his thoughts were relatively conservative. Because he supported the autocratic rule of the agricultural aristocracy and opposed the democratic politics of slave owners, he was eventually sentenced to death. Socrates' life, in addition to being engaged in sculpture work, was spent most of his time on teaching. He has been engaged in social education regardless of remuneration for decades. He teaches people earnestly and has stricter self-discipline. His life was a vivid textbook of moral education, and he was called "the teacher of all teachers" by later generations.

Socrates opposed the so-called view of the wise that "man is the measure of all things". He believed that definitions of morality and justice are not people's subjective opinions, but objective truths. In his opinion, the meaning of things existed in the human mind before a person was born; but when a person was born, he forgot them due to the interference of the physical body. Therefore, he believes that the task of philosophers and teachers is not to instill truth into people from the outside, but to guide and inspire people to pour out the knowledge and truth inherent in their stomachs. Socrates' teaching adopted an interesting conversation method, and the main content of his teaching was moral philosophy. In teaching, Socrates often started from simple things or simple truths that everyone saw every day, asked questions to students, and pretended that he knew nothing, allowing students to fully express their opinions, and then used cross-examination to make students Falling into a self-contradictory dilemma, it encourages students to think actively, and then supplements it with various relevant examples to inspire and induce, so that students can approach the correct conclusion step by step. Socrates compared this to the midwife urging the fetus out of the mother's belly, so he named this method "midwifery". In the history of Western education, it is recognized that this is the earliest heuristic teaching method in the West.

II

The era when Confucius and Socrates lived was a time when social productivity in the East and the West was further developed, cultural and educational undertakings were prosperous, and people's educational practice activities were increasingly enriched. As the earliest great educators in the East and the West, Confucius and Socrates devoted their lives to education, accumulated rich experience in education and teaching, and had a preliminary understanding and thinking about the laws of the teaching process. Therefore, there are many similarities between the heuristic teaching methods they proposed and actually used:

(1) Mainly use question and answer method for teaching. During the period when Confucius and Socrates lived, the main form of teaching organization in schools was individual teaching, that is, teachers had to teach individual students, and most of the students they taught were adults with certain life experience and knowledge base. Due to the limitations of other objective conditions, the question-and-answer teaching method is the most commonly used teaching method in actual teaching. The Analects of Confucius actually records the questions and answers discussed between Confucius and his disciples. It records various questions raised by the students more than a hundred times, such as "asking about benevolence" and "asking about etiquette". ", "Asking about politics", etc., through this question and answer, students' thinking is inspired and their knowledge is enhanced. In Xenophon's book "Remembering Socrates" we can also see that Socrates often asked questions in teaching, asking students to use their existing knowledge to answer. If the answer was wrong, he would Use suggestive supplementary questions to guide students, and finally enable students to arrive at the answer that Socrates thinks is correct.

(2) Pay attention to creating a harmonious and democratic teaching atmosphere. Through the Analects of Confucius, we can find that although Confucius was relatively conservative politically and had a strict hierarchy of superiority and inferiority in his mind, because he advocated "the benevolent love others" and "teaching without distinction", he treated all students There is no discrimination, including those students from poor backgrounds, and they are treated equally, and Confucius believes that "young people are to be feared, how can one know that those who come are not as good as they are now" and "do one's duty and do not give in to the teacher", which reflects Confucius's frank attitude A broad mind and broad embrace are also a sign of respect and encouragement for students. Precisely because there was a democratic and equal teacher-student relationship between Confucius and his disciples, in the actual teaching process, Confucius' teaching attitude was very modest and democratic, and he often encouraged students to fully express their opinions. For example, it is recorded in the "Advance" chapter that once Zi Lu, Ran You, and Gong Xihua were sitting together (for a discussion). Confucius first said: "Although I am a little older than you, you must not be restrained by this and dare not speak freely." A very natural, friendly and sincere teaching atmosphere was created from the beginning, which is the most important factor in the success of a conversation. During the conversation, he also paid attention to giving every student the opportunity to fully express his opinions. Even if some students' comments were inconsistent with his own, he never interrupted the students' speeches or commented on the students immediately, so that the students did not dare to speak up. explain. Some students were reluctant to speak, but Confucius encouraged them with sympathy. The teaching is full of harmonious, harmonious and democratic teaching atmosphere.

And Socrates was a teacher who did not charge students tuition and never lost his temper with his students. Like Confucius, he taught people regardless of whether they were rich or poor, high or low, old or young. He answered seriously anyone's questions, and he was happy to accompany anyone who wanted to talk to him and answer his questions. Moreover, his teaching is usually carried out on the basis of thoroughly gaining the trust of students. His teaching attitude is very approachable, not self-righteous, not good as a teacher, and does not force others to follow him. From "Reminiscences of Socrates" we can find that he often Calling students "friends", he always encourages students to fully express their opinions and expresses appreciation for certain qualities of students in a timely manner, so that students can learn in a happy and not nervous state.

(3) Pay attention to stimulating students’ learning initiative. Confucius and Socrates both attached great importance to inspiring students' learning consciousness in their teaching practices and emphasized students' active participation. Confucius's proposition of "not angry, not angry, not angry, not angry" emphasizes students' active thinking. He requires students to enter a certain learning "state" through self-efforts, and then teachers can make the best use of the situation, give timely guidance, and then Make students understand by analogy. In teaching, Confucius often stimulated students' interest and initiative in learning by asking questions that they were interested in, so that students could actively participate in the conversation and express their opinions. Therefore, Yan Yuan, one of Confucius' favorite students, said: "The Master is good at tempting people step by step." This means that Confucius is good at inspiring and inducing students step by step, making students extremely interested in learning, so that Yan Yuan has the feeling of "can't stop" .

In his teaching, Socrates often stimulated students' desire to explore the truth through a series of tactfully arranged questions. He often accuses himself of "knowing nothing" because admitting his ignorance is the first step to understanding the truth. Therefore, he does not approach the teaching situation with an attitude that he already knows the answer, but regards teaching as a full-fledged task. In doubt, he first played the role of an active learner. After a student attempts to answer a question, he or she will ask new questions to prove that the answer is inappropriate. Through step-by-step cross-examination, students can understand that what they thought was true before turned out to be false; what they thought was right before turned out to be wrong. This will force students to think actively and actively seek answers to questions. This kind of teaching avoids the hard-fed indoctrination. The focus is not on handing over ready-made knowledge to students, but on stimulating people to consciously explore knowledge. Its teaching method is named The "Midwife Art" profoundly reflects Socrates' guiding ideology.

(4) Focus on inspiring students to think and develop their thinking abilities. Confucius said: "Learning without thinking is useless; thinking without learning is dangerous." ③ It means that if you only read without thinking, you will be easily deceived; if you only think without reading, you will still be confused and confused. Only by combining learning and thinking can we achieve something. "The Analects" records that most of the students praised by Confucius were able to "hear one and know two", "hear one and know ten", and "tell what has gone before and know what is coming", that is, they can consciously use independent thinking ability. For what Confucius said, The knowledge imparted can be used to some extent, and new experiences and insights can be gained. On the contrary, he expressed his dissatisfaction and disappointment with those students who "learn without thinking", "don't say what they say", and "don't like everything I say". Precisely because Confucius attached great importance to the cultivation of students' thinking ability, on the one hand he emphasized that students should use their brains during the learning process, "ask more doubts" and dare to discover problems; on the other hand, he also emphasized that teachers should not rigidly teach. Injection should be used to inspire students when they are seeking knowledge but do not know it ("angry") and when they want to speak but are unable to do so ("coward"), that is, when students are actively thinking, and use the teacher's inspiring role in "ideas" On the other hand, we train and enhance students’ positive thinking and independent thinking abilities through “drawing inferences from one example”.

Socrates also valued students' independent thinking. He believed that the reason why people cannot discover and follow legitimate affairs is simply that they do not think carefully. Therefore, he pays great attention to stimulating students' positive thinking in teaching and allowing students to obtain correct conclusions through independent thinking. Usually he does not suggest what he considers to be truth in the form of ready-made principles. Instead, he first raises questions about specific things and phenomena that students are familiar with and asks students to answer them. He then refutes students' answers to make their answers more obvious. To expose the absurdity, or force the other party to admit their ignorance. After the other party understands the reason for reaching this absurd conclusion, the incorrect answer will be corrected on its own, and the correct conclusion will be reached. It should be said that this is a better thinking training, which enables people to overcome the confusion of thinking, learn to think about problems logically, and objectively follows the cognitive rules from concrete to abstract, from individual to general, and from known to unknown. Using this method in teaching can make people regard the acquisition of regular knowledge as the focus of teaching, prompt students to think actively, and help cultivate students' ability to understand and solve problems.

However, due to the influence of Eastern and Western cultural traditions and the differences in their respective philosophical epistemologies, there are also obvious differences between the heuristic teaching methods of Confucius and Socrates. The main manifestations are as follows:

< p>First of all, when training students' thinking, Confucius emphasized intuition and Socrates emphasized abstraction. In his teaching, Confucius often used empirical analogical reasoning to grasp objects and their connections, and his thinking had certain intuitive and perceptual characteristics. Confucius said: "Being able to draw close examples can be called the recipe of benevolence." ④ That is to say, it emphasizes understanding benevolence through one's own approach to others. This kind of analogical reasoning is indeed effective in mobilizing students' positive thinking. Through analogy, it can enlighten people's thinking and help people open the wings of imagination, extrapolate from one thing to another, draw analogies, and understand and discover new things. However, if analogical reasoning is used for thinking training, the concept of "category" is not based on precise scientific understanding, and it will be far-fetched, which often limits the breadth of students' thinking. In his teaching, Socrates often explained and grasped objects and their connections through rigorous logical argumentation, placing more emphasis on forming clear concepts through generalization and abstraction.

Aristotle believed that this was a method of induction, which taught people how to find the general from the particular and extract the universal from the particular; it taught people to distinguish between the individual and the general, allowing him to understand that the individual components of things play a vital role in the essence of things. Sayings cannot play a decisive role. Only general and universal can determine the essence of things. This method helps students think about problems logically and grasp the essence of things.

Secondly, regarding the focus of teaching, relatively speaking, Confucius emphasized "learning" and Socrates focused on "thinking". Confucius said: "I have tried not to eat all day long, not to sleep all night, thinking, it is useless, it is not as good as learning." ⑤ That is to say, thinking must be based on learning, otherwise it can only fall into meditation and daydream. Therefore, he emphasized the ability to think on the basis of erudition. Socrates believed that the purpose of education is not to tell students the truth directly, but to inspire students to think and discover the truth on their own. Therefore, in his teaching process, students' thinking is quite active, and they answer questions and answers through layers of reasoning. Teaching has better exercised students' thinking ability, but this method is also one-sided, because it does not conduct dialogue on the basis of students paying attention to observing actual phenomena and reading and mastering information and documents. As a result, it is difficult to deepen the discussion of issues. It is not easy to improve students' ideological level. If "debating" is conducted entirely according to Socrates' sophistry-like method, students' thoughts will often become more confused instead of clearer.

Thirdly, when teaching students enlightenment, Confucius adopted flexible and diverse methods, while Socrates adopted a single form. During teaching, Confucius either directly answered students' questions; or used cross-examination to encourage and inspire students to find answers by thinking on their own; or he held discussions with students, learning from each other's strengths and weaknesses, and seeking conclusions together. And we can teach students in accordance with their aptitude according to their personality characteristics. Its teaching methods are lively, flexible and diverse. In contrast, an obvious flaw of Socrates' usual question-and-answer method is that it is uniform and mechanical. He does not teach flexibly according to different objects, time, place, and occasions, but always uses a rigid set of questions and answers, which sometimes seems very cumbersome, which can easily make students lose patience and reduce their enthusiasm for learning.

Fourth, Confucius taught from a passive position, while Socrates took an active position. Gong Mencius, a disciple of Confucius, once gave a vivid explanation of Confucius's heuristic teaching method: "A gentleman is ready to wait. If he asks something, he will speak; if he does not ask, he will stop. It is like a bell. If you press it, it will ring. If you don't press it, it will ring. Then it doesn’t sound.”⑥ That is to say, Confucius passively treated others to “study” instead of actively teaching others. Socrates, on the other hand, took the initiative to "go to teach" and "speak without hesitation". He also used clever tricks in teaching to make students obey, honestly admit their ignorance, and willingly accept Socrates' teachings.

三

The emergence of heuristic teaching method has a history of more than 2,000 years. In its initial period, it showed strong vitality and greatly promoted the education at that time. The development of theory and practice has cultivated a large number of outstanding talents. After being vigorously advocated by some progressive educators, heuristic teaching methods have been continuously supplemented, improved and developed in theory and practice, and today have developed into a guiding ideology for the selection and application of teaching methods. However, due to the limitations of social and historical conditions, the educational and teaching laws contained in heuristic teaching methods have not been fully elucidated. People even have many misunderstandings about it. In long-term teaching practice, more and more cramming methods are used. Inject pedagogy. Therefore, we believe that the exploration and practice of heuristic teaching methods by Confucius and Socrates still have certain phenomenal significance today and give us a lot of inspiration for our teaching:

(1) Establishing true equality and harmony teacher-student relationship. Whether heuristic teaching can proceed smoothly depends to a large extent on whether there is a democratic atmosphere in the teaching process and whether the teacher-student relationship is harmonious. Therefore, in teaching, teachers should be like Confucius and Socrates, facing students with a sincere and frank attitude and unabashed performance, respecting students' personality, emotions and opinions, and not easily giving students harmful or depressive criticism. And establish students' dominant position in the teaching process, allowing students to actively participate in the teaching process from beginning to end, and truly become the masters of learning. Rogers, a contemporary American humanistic psychologist, believes that the teacher-student relationship not only promotes students' in-depth learning, but also guarantees teachers' effective teaching. A good teacher-student relationship itself is the best teaching method.

(2) Create problem scenarios and focus on developing students’ thinking ability through the problem-solving process. Questions are triggers for thinking and the key to unlocking and developing thinking. And problem solving is the axis of classroom teaching. During teaching, teachers should pay attention to creating problem situations, stimulating students to form a strong psychological state of "angry" and "violent", and allowing students to understand and participate in the process of solving problems, instead of telling students the answers without leaving any room at the beginning. At the same time, during teaching, teachers should always capture the students' thinking obstacles and inspirations when solving problems, and enlighten and inspire them in a timely manner. Only in this way can students' thinking be prevented from becoming rigid and sluggish, and effectively promote the development of students' thinking ability. .

(3) Lecture carefully and practice skillfully, and draw inferences from one example. The essence of Confucius's heuristic teaching method is to draw inferences from one example and "tell what has come before", that is, through the guidance of teachers, it can arouse students' independent thinking and research, allowing students to acquire new knowledge on their own. "One" is the key here, so teachers must be proficient in using one, be good at using one, and be skillful in using one, so that using one can lead students to "reflect on three things."

Specifically, in the teaching process, teachers are required to carefully design their teaching content and methods, highlight key points and difficulties, make their teaching a model for students to think and solve problems, and encourage students to question and get to the bottom of problems. The arrangement of exercises should be typical for individuals, scientific for groups, and appropriate in quantity, striving to achieve "less, more precise, and more flexible". Mr. Ye Shengtao, a Chinese educator, once said: "Teachers do not teach in full, but in guiding them. They must make students use their talents and practice diligently. The source of understanding will be widened and the skills of proficiency will be deepened. They are good teachers." Also. ”⑦

(4) Use flexible teaching methods and methods according to actual needs. There are methods for teaching, but there is no fixed method. The limitations of social and historical conditions have made the question-and-answer method (conversation method) the main form of Confucius and Socrates' heuristic teaching method, but heuristic teaching method should never be simply equated with question-and-answer teaching. Heuristic teaching method is the guiding ideology for selecting and applying teaching methods. It can be carried out through a variety of teaching methods and methods, such as lecture method. Practice methods, demonstration methods, experimental methods, internship methods, discussion methods, conversation methods, etc. Although these methods each have specific application requirements and specific functions, if teachers can flexibly change according to the specific situation they are in, Properly used, it can inspire students' thinking and promote their development.