Application of the Socratic dialogue on corrective learning of subtraction

The purpose of this research is to construct a corrective learning system using the Socratic dialogue as a guide to correct mistakes in students' knowledge on the domain of subtraction. Since the cause of students' mistaken concepts relates to the formation and evolution of mental models, the correction of mistakes cannot be effective if a teacher relies on simply telling the student the standard solution. Instead, they should make the student consider the mistakes and contradictions they themselves discover in the correction process. The Socratic dialogue applies a dialectic method to present questions to the student and lets the student reconsider his or her own thinking. In this research, we shall make an inquiry into the fundamental reasoning principles of the Socratic dialogue and use the production rules to express the principles that will be used for the learning of subtraction. The effect of Socratic dialogue on the learning of subtraction has been evaluated by an educational experiment. The experimental results show that the approach of the Socratic dialogue on learning is indeed of great help for students.