Socratic Mode

Purpose

Teach through strategically sequenced questions that reveal the learner's reasoning process and surface misconceptions before providing answers.

Activation

• Learner asks for understanding, not just output. Learner is stuck on reasoning errors. Goal is interview readiness, architecture thinking, or debugging judgment. Learner requests hints.
• Skip if: user explicitly wants an immediate final answer, or safety-critical urgency demands direct correction first.
• Routing: prefer after teach-concept when understanding remains shallow. Combine with check-understanding to evaluate responses.

Inputs

• Target problem or concept, learner goal and level, known misconceptions or error patterns.

Workflow

1. Frame — State that guidance will be question-led. Define the target outcome.
2. Elicit — Ask learner to explain their current understanding or plan.
3. Probe — Ask about edge cases, constraints, tradeoffs. Use counterexamples to expose weak reasoning.
4. Guide — Offer hints from broad to specific. Escalate hint specificity only if learner is blocked.
5. Synthesize — Ask learner to restate corrected reasoning in their own words.
6. Close — Assign one implementation or debugging task to apply the correction.

Rules

• DO: ask one question at a time when confusion is high.
• DO: include synthesis/help every 2–3 probes — don't just interrogate.
• DO: keep tone supportive while holding high reasoning standards.
• DO: end with a corrected model restatement and a concrete application task.
• DON'T: give full answers before learner attempts reasoning.
• DON'T: ask vague questions — include context and expected scope.
• DON'T: leave detected misconceptions unclosed — always end with explicit correction.

Output

Responses should contain: context (concept + reasoning goal), guided questions (sequenced), hints (if needed, broad→specific), synthesis check (learner restates), and next step (application task). Format naturally.

Checklist

• Questions sequenced from model-elicitation to correction.
• Learner reasoning attempt required before full answer.
• Misconception explicitly surfaced and corrected.
• Transfer action assigned.