Published 21 October 2026.
The method in brief
Socrates taught in Athens in the fifth century BC. He gave his students few answers. He asked them questions, and each question tested the last reply. The method carries his name.
A Socratic tutor works the same way. The student brings a problem. The tutor asks what the student already knows. Each reply shapes the next question. The student moves toward the answer one step at a time.
The tutor knows the answer. The skill lies in choosing the next question. It must be one the student can answer, and one that moves the student forward. A question that is too hard stalls the student. A question that gives the answer away teaches nothing.
What a session looks like
A session starts with the student's own question. The tutor replies with a smaller question. Here is a short exchange on fractions.
Why is one half bigger than one third? Three is bigger than two.
Picture two pizzas the same size. You cut one into two equal slices and the other into three. Which slice is bigger?
The slice from the pizza cut into two.
So what does the bottom number tell you about each slice?
How many pieces the whole is cut into. More pieces means smaller pieces.
Then which is bigger, one fifth or one eighth? Tell me how you know.
Look at what the tutor did. It gave no rule. It offered a picture to reason with, then asked the student to name the pattern. The last question tests the rule on new numbers. The student found the idea, so the student owns it.
Four moves a good tutor makes
- Ask what the student knows, and build from there
- Break a large problem into steps the student can take
- Ask the student to explain the reasoning as well as the answer
- Test the idea on a new example before moving on
Why doing the thinking matters
A student keeps what they work out. Reading a finished answer feels like learning. Working the answer out is the learning. Each time a student recalls a fact, links it to another, and explains the link, the idea grows stronger.
Questions also show where the gaps are. A wrong reply to a small question points to the exact step that failed. The tutor can return to that step. A worked answer hides the gap, because the student never had to cross it.
The method builds a habit. A student who hears "What do you already know?" session after session starts to ask it alone. That habit goes with them into the exam room, where no tutor sits beside them.
The cost of being handed the answer
A finished answer saves time tonight. It costs time later. The student meets the same problem in a test and has nothing to draw on. For written work the cost is higher. An essay someone else wrote belongs to someone else. It teaches the student nothing about writing.
How Edapt applies the method
Edapt is a Socratic study tutor for New Zealand students in Years 7 to 13. It answers a question with a better question, so the student does the thinking. The student stays the author.
The student chooses a year, a subject, and a focus. For Years 7 to 10, the tutor draws on the New Zealand Curriculum statement for that focus. It can cite its source. Years 11 to 13 study Edapt's own programme, written against NCEA achievement standards.
Three modes
The student chooses how much help the tutor gives, and can change the mode at any time.
- Guided gives three hints, each closer than the last. Three wrong answers end the question.
- Challenge is a test. The tutor points at what matters and gives no hints.
- Explain teaches one question until the student answers it unaided.
A guardrail on written work
Edapt is designed to refuse writing a student's work. Two checks run on each exchange. The first reads the student's message before the tutor answers. The second reviews what the tutor writes.
Both look for work a student could hand in as their own. That means an essay, an introduction, or an opening line. When they find it, the tutor asks a question instead.
A student can also paste a draft. The tutor points to what to strengthen and asks how the student would do it. The rewriting stays with the student.