Questioning - a final look. Socratic Questioning - A definition Socratic questioning is a form of inquiry-based dialogue that encourages critical thinking and self-reflection by asking probing questions to explore the assumptions, evidence, and implications of an idea. In education, Socratic questioning can be used to help students analyze concepts, differentiate between systematic and fragmented thinking, and in becoming independent learners. Comment This questioning stra

Stage Two - 1955 to 1966 - Prelude to My Life as a College Professor In this session, I want to deal with some differences between being a traditional college professor who uses the lecture method and being a professor like Dr. Margaret Carroll (and me) who use the Student-centered Learning method. Because we are dealing with the thoughts and feelings of our students we want to make the best use of the interactions between ourselves and our students and in the interactions

This occurred in the Summer of 1965. I was fulfilling my doctoral residence requirement at Northern Illinois University. I was preparing to take the two-day written examination and I thought it would be a good idea to sit-in on an Education Curriculum class. I asked Dr. Margaret Carroll, chairperson of my doctoral committee and professor of the class if I could do that and she thought it was a good idea although I had missed the opening session. There were about 15 students

Teaching Experiences During the 1954 school year I got a call from a teacher friend telling me that I needed to move to where he was teaching at the Barrington, Illinois, school district. I spent the next 11 years as an elementary - junior high school teacher and curriculum director in schools based on Progressive to Humanistic and Cognitive psychologies. I wrote my masters thesis on an Individualized Reading Program in my fourth grade classroom. In 1963, I was accepted in

Introduction During my 1950-2002 teaching career, I had a great number of changes occurring in my learning life and in my teaching methods. When I began to look at my history with Teaching Methodology and Psychology I saw a set of four developmental stages. So I will be dealing with the first stage in this week’s blog. Stage One – 1950 – 1955 Teaching Experiences Country School, Grades 1-8 Grades 5 and 6 Grades 7-8 Basketball Coach I graduated with a B

Introduction Last Sunday, May 31, 2026, I turned 100 years of age and one of my feelings has been that I need to take advantage of this new status in my life to renew my career in psychology. I thereby will be devoting these blogs to that adventure for the near future. This will be an intensive study related to the study of the mind and behavior as described in the APA definition of psychology submitted below. This blog is the kick off. I hope you will join me in this ventur

That’s the title of the discussion I was asked to share with my church study group last Sunday. My good friend, Rev. Douglas Boydon, assisted me in this venture. If you are reading this blog on the date that it’s being published, tomorrow will be the 100th anniversary of my birth. I, modestly and actually, suggested that this is my 100th Year of Trial and Error. Let me just share some of my thoughts with you. I was born in LaSalle, Illinois, on May 31, 1926, to parents tha

That’s the title of the discussion I have been asked to share with my church study group this Sunday. My good friend, Rev. Douglas Boydon, will be assisting me in this venture. Here is the list of some of the things we may kick around. MY PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION – These writings are in Grassroots Coaching or in one of our Blogs. I. Readiness Three Rules – Edward Thorndike 1. If Pat

Peter McGahey & Peter Pierro August 30, 2024 When we wrote this blog back in 2024, we were exploring player centered coaching and the ‘roles’ of the coach. Now, we want to focus on the Mentor working with her team as a unit. You’re a member of your team as well as being a mentor to the team and its individual members. Do not put yourself above and apart from your team. You are all in this together. If your team has a bad game, you don’t say, “The guys were

Peter Pierro April 8, 2022 While dealing with Maturation issues, we teachers and coaches encountered human growth and had very little or perhaps even nothing to do with the factors involved in the work we will encounter with Readiness; speed of foot, arm power, interest, social means (e.g. teamwork), intelligence, body movements, cooperation, awareness, and all the rest of what being a human being consists of. “What can Fran do for himself as a player and

Peter Pierro & Peter McGahey First shown March 26, 2022 Maturation The maturing of children has always been a difficult issue to deal with in both education and in sports. What is the correct grade to introduce fractions to children? When is Susie mature enough to hit a golf ball? Do girls mature earlier in life than boys so boys should start their school days a half year or so older than girls? In my work as a teacher and as a coach, I have seen many instanc

Peter McGahey & Peter Pierro First shown February 18, 2022 I’m always happy to quote from the works of my fellow Illinoisan. The wisdom of his message is given in clear, understandable, and caring terms. Your team, the Falcons, are featured in the following scenario: Conversation overheard during a break at your local Parent-Teacher Meeting; First Parents: We are new here and our two children have been accepted as players with the Falco

Peter McGahey & Peter Pierro First shown on February 25, 2022 Self-Fulfilling Prophesies There are three types of negative Self-Fulfilling-Prophesies that coaches and teachers will experience while working with learners. The first one was dealt with extensively in our 2/25/2022 blog - the adult mentors putting labels on their players and the players accepting and being affected by them. The second is when the player is doing the self-labeling.

Peter McGahey & Peter Pierro March 18, 2022 When we opened our website in 2022, we decided to come to grips with “Winning” and “Losing” early in our weekly blogs. What do these concepts mean and how do we define and deal with them? We knew this would not be easy - there are so many factors involved - Meanings, Attitudes, Feelings, Thoughts , Social Situations, Expectations, Competitive Activities, Rewards, Levels, Adulation, Prestige. . . . Does winning a Tiddlyw

Peter McGahey & Peter Pierro First shown on May 28, 2022 At my first reading, I thought this was a nice, simple story of a coach who created a simple strategy that would cause his new players to improve their game. It certainly is that but upon reading it again, I found myself feeling something quite different - something more profound and more meaningful. I don’t know whether Stan Jones intended to do this but this is what I “saw”. He

Peter McGahey & Peter Pierro First shown on March 26, 2022 The Wolf and the Pack Now this is the Law of the Jungle as old and as true as the sky; And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break it must die. As the creeper that girdles the tree trunk, the Law runneth forward and back For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack. The Second Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling This blog, The Wolf and

Peter McGahey & Peter Pierro First shown on March 10, 2023 Dear Reader: We began writing the beyourbest2day blogs in December of 2021 - over 200 all together - and the original one being reviewed here is probably the shortest of them. As with small packages, this may be the best of them. The message is very clear and very easy to transmit to the reader. It has been generally stated thusly in an old saying: “It is better to keep one’s mouth shut and be thought to

Peter McGahey & Peter Pierro First Shown Dec 13, 2024 This week’s blog on Overcoaching has us refer you to two of our most important beliefs as presented in our book, Grassroots Coaching . It is absolutely critical that these beliefs be followed while working with children and players in each and every educational endeavor. The Master Principle: Learning how to learn is the most important goal of education. You learn how to learn only by being involved in the learnin

First shown January 28, 2022 In the blog below, we are dealing generally with the interaction between 1. the Teacher and Child and 2. the Teacher and her Class. In a team sport, we would analyze the interactions between the Coach and the Team, the Coach and each of the Players, the Player with each of the other Players, and each of the Players with the Team. In addition, we could be working with the Self-Expectations of the Coach and each of the Players, dealing with con

First shown August 5, 2022 Honoring Our Winners Last week we watched 2871 athletes representing 92 countries giving thousands of excellent performances in the 2026 Winter Olympics. There were many winners and even more losers - or were they losers? That depends on our perceptions and our beliefs. Anyway, we can all choose our favorite players. Here are my three favorites with simple criteria for my choices. The Women hockey team for their team play and intensity - they we