We’ve all probably been in this situation before (maybe in both people’s shoes at different points of our careers):

A technician is on the job with their apprentice. The technician tells the apprentice where the probes go on the service ports and exactly what the superheat and subcooling are. 

The apprentice’s eyes glaze over, and internally, they’re thinking, “I read this in a book. This guy’s just going on and on… what’s the point of being here?” 

Then, on the next call, the technician tells the apprentice to hook up the probes. The apprentice can’t. The technician thinks, “Why won’t this person listen to me? Guess kids these days just don’t want to work anymore.”

It’s frustrating for both people! The apprentice isn’t trying to be difficult. They’re just not engaged. They’re also probably struggling to apply a dense textbook to real life. The technician isn’t trying to be boring. He’s probably just doing what he learned from his trainers back in the day.

Those situations highlight a painful disconnect between the way we often train people and the way we actually connect with ideas and each other. It’s hard for trainers to meet trainees where they’re at, and it’s hard to engage trainees effectively.

To get on the same page and make those field procedures and experiences stick, we need to INVOLVE the apprentices more directly. A great way of engaging them is by using the Socratic method. 

What Is the Socratic Method?

The Socratic method is a way of using questions to drive discussions and learning. Instead of spoon-feeding answers to trainees, we ask them questions about how they think something works or what they think will happen next. 

The trainees have to work with their observations and prior knowledge, and they’ll probably struggle a bit. That’s the whole point; we want them to discover how things work and build mental models in real-time. 

Let’s go back to when you first started in the trade. What would you have been more likely to remember?

1. Textbook explanations of superheat, saturation temperature, and the P-T chart?
2. Hooking up gauges (or probes), talking through the refrigeration cycle with a trainer who asks a bunch of annoying questions, and talking through the readings on measureQuick?

I think most of us would remember the second one better, maybe unless you had a photographic memory. If you’re forced to think through processes and discover information, it’ll stick a lot better than words in a book.

A good trainer can use questions to do some discovery of their own, too. By asking these questions, they can get a sense of what the trainee already knows and what they don’t. They can meet the trainee where they’re at and adapt their approach. 

Asking Discovery Questions

People don’t enter the trade from the same place or a common baseline of knowledge. We have a mix of trade school graduates, people who grew up fixing things but not air conditioners, and people with NO mechanical experience whatsoever.

As trainers, we can’t start from the same place with everyone. Using the Socratic method by leading with questions helps us figure out what our trainees know and how to guide them from there.

For example, you could be working on a mini-split with an apprentice, point to the electronic expansion valve (EEV), and ask the apprentice if they know what it is. Someone who’s worked on mini-splits in a lab or read books about it would already know. Someone who’s never worked on a mini-split and didn’t remember some diagrams he saw in trade school probably won’t know.

But there are learning opportunities for both apprentices. We can use the Socratic method to meet both of them where they’re at!

The Apprentice Who Knows What an EEV Is

Let’s see how a trainer could approach the trainee who can already recognize an EEV in the field from some brief exposure in trade school. Let’s call him Apprentice 1.

Trainer: “What’s that?”

Apprentice 1: “An EEV?”

Trainer: “That’s right. How does it work?”

Apprentice 1: “The board sends and receives information from sensors and uses that to send signals to the valve to open or close.”

Trainer: “What kind of information does the board receive?”

Apprentice 1: “Pressure or temperature. Depends on if there’s a thermistor or pressure transducer.”

Trainer: “What kind of signal is sent to the board?”

Apprentice 1: “… I don’t know.”

Now, we know that the apprentice understands what an EEV is and how it works, but they don’t quite know how the sensors work. 

In that case, the trainer can identify the sensor in the system and ask a follow-up question to reengage the apprentice’s mind:

Trainer: “Do you know what kind of sensor that is?”

Apprentice 1: “A thermistor?”

Trainer: “Right! And how do we measure it?”

Apprentice 1: “Resistance?”

Trainer: “Exactly. And how does that resistance value make it to the board?”

Apprentice 1: “It’s the voltage that goes back and forth, isn’t it? Would it affect the voltage going back to the board, then?

…

You see how the trainer doesn’t just stop when the apprentice answers the question correctly? He moves on to see if the apprentice knows how the EEV works. The apprentice is partially there already, but the trainer’s questions help him develop a better understanding of how the EEV modulates: what it responds to, where those signals come from, etc. 

The Apprentice Who Does NOT Know What an EEV Is

Let’s compare that to an apprentice who may have worked on TXV systems but not ones with an EEV:

Trainer: “What’s that?”

Apprentice 2: “It’s not a TXV, but it looks like an expansion valve of some kind.”

Trainer: “That’s a great guess! You’re on the right track. What does this have that a TXV doesn’t?”

Apprentice 2: “Well, the TXV has a bulb. This has sensors and wires.”

Trainer: “Great job! Where do those wires go?”

Apprentice 2: “A board? So, it’s electronic.”

Trainer: “Remember what you said earlier. That valve is an electronic…?”

Apprentice 2: “Expansion valve.”

Trainer: “Good! Say it again.”

Apprentice 2: “Electronic expansion valve.”

…

That apprentice now knows that the valve is an electronic expansion valve! The trainer directed the apprentice’s focus to some visual clues, and the apprentice used those to come to his own conclusion about what the valve does.

How the Trainer Met Each Trainee Where They Were At

Both apprentices learned something that was beneficial for their experience level.

But what if the trainer had just stopped asking questions once Apprentice 1 correctly identified the part? That apprentice would not have discovered how the EEV works.

What if the trainer went straight to the sensor question or descriptions with Apprentice 2? That would’ve probably intimidated or frustrated the apprentice.

Instead, he started with a general, relevant question and used more questions to meet each apprentice where they were. Then, he built up their understanding with MORE questions that were appropriate for their respective knowledge levels.

How the Socratic Method Engages Young People with the Trades

We can use the Socratic method on people of ALL ages and experience levels as they get into the trade. We can even use this method to see what middle and high-schoolers understand about the trades and how to make them feel like trade skills are interesting and achievable!

That’s exactly what we do at the GRIT Foundation. Some of the teenagers already know some basic trade skills, and others don’t. We train the mentors who work with them to ask questions and guide their understanding, not just tell them how to cut wood, braze pipes and fittings, or make basic electrical circuits.

We’ve found that this method is really engaging for the students. One of the older students who participated in a GRIT Camp last year is now in trade school to be an HVAC technician. Even if the students come out of the camps and don’t want a career in the trades, they still think critically, create something they’re proud of, and develop the confidence to know that they always could make or fix things with their hands.

And how did it become possible? Because some great trainers asked the right questions, met the students where they were at, and built them up from there.

That ability is in all of us. The next time you’re paired with an apprentice or someone who has less experience than you, try using questions to connect with them and engage their brain. I bet you’ll have a much better, more productive time together.

P.S. — Ty Branaman has talked about the Socratic method (and some other great training strategies in general) on the podcast. We also released a podcast episode explaining how the Socratic method works at GRIT, if you’re interested in learning more about that.