美国法学教育中苏格拉底教学法的变迁与反思

Changes of the Socratic Method in U.S. Legal Education

教学方法一直是美国法学教育理论与实践研究的核心问题。近二十年来美国法学教学方法一直存在着争议与反复,在这一过程中,传统苏格拉底教学法受到了越来越多的批判,似乎正在逐渐退出历时舞台。但通过对这种教学法进行经验考察与理论分析可以发现,苏格拉底教学法在源流、结构以及功能等多方面与美国法学教学的核心内涵存在对应与密接关系。虽然随着时代的发展,美国法学教育的培养目标、运行机制与课程设置等多方面都面临改革,但改良基础上的苏格拉底教学法仍将在可以预期的未来成为美国法学教育所采用的主流教学方法之一,并可以为我国法学教学方法改革提供有益的借鉴。

Teaching methods have been a key issue in the theory and practice of U.S. legal education. In the past 20 years,there have always been controversies and reversals over teaching methods. During this process,the Socratic method received an increasing amount of criticism and seemed to have vanished from the history. Research and theoretic analysis find,however,that the origin,structure,and function of the Socratic method have close corresponding relations with the core content of U.S. legal education. With the development of the times,many aspects including the objectives,operational mechanisms,and curriculum design are facing reforms,but expectedly a modified Socratic method will dominate the future U.S. legal education. This phenomenon can be a beneficial reference for China's reform of teaching method in legal education.