As demonstrated by Socrates himself, the Socratic teacher maintains control of the dialogue mainly by asking leading questions and defining the terms of the conversations. In a constructivist classroom, the student is in charge of the interaction. The direction of talk is mainly defined by the student. The balance between not asking leading questions, but keeping students from going too far down a non-productive track is delicate and develops with experience. And Small Groups To maximize the time that students are actively engaged in problem solving and conceptual development they work in pairs in all parts of the program, including computer programming.
Students switch roles as they move from one problem to the next.
As they become more experienced and comfortable with both roles, these roles begin to merge into a cooperative problem solving experience. Students become better both at persisting in problem solving and in asking themselves questions that will help them to move along. They also become better at asking specific and focused questions of teachers when help is needed. As students solve problems in pairs, they are encouraged to turn to other pairs to compare solutions. Whole class discussions usually occur at two particular points.