As a response to the need to develop ethical agency, and decision-making of professionals in an increasingly complex world, research on wisdom has expanded (Kristjánsson et al., 2021; Tynjälä & al., 2020). Wisdom as an aim of education challenges mere knowledge acquisition and competence development as too narrow or instrumental approaches to education and respectively, many researchers have shifted the focus from the competences that professionals should have to the domain of being good professionals in terms of the quality or excellence (Biesta, 2015; Kristjánsson, 2016). In the context of teacher education, practical wisdom (phronesis) has been considered important for teachers to become aware of the necessities of a certain situation and to make correct pedagogical choices (e.g., Lunenberg & Korthagen, 2009; Stenberg & Maaranen, 2022). In our research we set out to resolve how the development of wisdom can be promoted in teacher education. The aim of our research is to develop pedagogy that supports student teachers in developing the prerequisites for becoming wise teachers.  

As a theoretical framework we have two models – the Holistic Wisdom Model (HWM) and the Teaching of Wisdom Model (TWM) (Kallio & Tynjälä, 2025). The HWM is based on philosophical and psychological research and constructs wisdom as a complex, context-bound process integrating various cognitive and affective-social factors and values, characterized by a bidirectional movement between the individual and the external environment, and directed by the person. Wisdom is embodied in ideal action for the common good in challenging life situations. The TWM highlights pedagogical principles that previous research has shown to be promising ways to support the development of wisdom. It stresses the need for diverse pedagogical practices to develop attributes related to different dimensions of wisdom. The ethical-existential dimension is seen as the core of wisdom as it involves a broad understanding of the complexity and diversity of human experience. Accordingly, ethical values should direct all education and teaching to encourage reflection on the multi-dimensional nature of human existence.  

As a pedagogical approach we chose Nelson-Heckman approach to Socratic dialogue (Nelson, 1922/2004; Heckmann, 1981), a philosophically oriented, structured dialogue led by a facilitator, where students examine the chosen topic through critical examination of their own real-life experiences. The approach is characterized by slow tempo allowing time for critical reflection and argumentation, listening and seeking to understand others and searching for consensus. In general, dialogue is considered as a promising practice for enhancing wisdom and this particular approach includes pedagogical principles, such as challenging beliefs and fostering a community of inquiry, that previous research has shown to be promising ways to support the development of wisdom (Bruya & Ardelt, 2018). Few existing empirical studies suggest that the practice of Socratic dialogue promotes communication, collaboration and critical thinking skills, for example, of the participants (e.g., Knežić & al., 2013; Marcussen, Weiss & Helskog, 2021). Our aim is to develop Socratic dialogue as an approach to wisdom pedagogy. Our related research questions are: 1) Do student teachers’ learning experiences during Socratic dialogues include attributes related to wisdom identified in wisdom studies? and 2) Does Socratic dialogue support the development of the ethical agency and decision-making of the student teachers’?. 

We applied and developed Socratic dialogue as a form of wisdom pedagogy through action research. In action research it is important to actively seek to change social practices for the better and at the same time to gain new knowledge of these practices. The desired change is understood as a joint accomplishment of all the people belonging to the society in question (Heikkinen, Kaukko & Salo, 2023.) As a part of a broader project we developed a course that integrates Socratic dialogue with other complementary methods, such as reflection tasks and reading and discussing relevant theory, for examining ethical dilemmas encountered in the everyday practice of teaching. The course was designed for advanced level primary school student teachers. The chosen approach emphasized the importance of student’s own insights and commitment to self-development – especially in relation to their values. The course was carried out twice in 2023 and 21 students participated in the study, studying either distance via Zoom or in-person in the classroom. The data consists of students’ answers to reflection tasks, focus group interview and self-evaluation which surveyed students' experiences of their learning during the course (121 200 words). The data analysis uses a hybrid approach to thematic analysis that combines deductive and inductive approaches. The hybrid approach is appropriate because there is substantial qualitative literature on psychological wisdom that provides insights and knowledge that a purely inductive approach might miss, and at the same time the existing knowledge is understood to be incomplete and the thematic framework in need of further development (Robinson, 2022.) We used the thematic framework of the HWM as an orienting construct for the analysis. This first part of the analysis aims to understand to what extent students experience learning related to the different dimensions of wisdom. In the second part, the analysis was further developed to better meet Braun and Clarke’s (2019) understanding of qualitative analysis as a creative and interpretive process that is about meaning and meaning making. We used the reflective thematic analysis to identify repeated patterns of meaning across the data set that helped to construct the seemingly fragmentary learning of different attributes related to wisdom into a more holistic interpretation of students learning process during the course.

The results suggest that Socratic dialogue supported student teachers to develop prerequisites for wisdom during the course on ethical dilemmas. Students reported that they learned a wide range of different attributes of wisdom across the different dimensions identified in previous studies. In addition, results structure five themes in students’ learning experiences that are manifest across all the dimensions of wisdom: Growing self-knowledge, Developing multiperspectivity, Tolerating ambiguity, Committing to reflected values and Aspiring for common good. These themes conceptualize qualitative changes in students’ awareness during the Ethical dilemmas course and indicate the steps the student goes through in the pursuit of becoming a wise teacher. These steps essentially connect to the development of the ethical agency and decision-making of the student teachers. Students reported that growing awareness of one’s own values and being able to justify one’s actions and decisions based on them, gave them confidence and strengthened their sense of agency. Students reported that they were able to make more conscious decision and respond more quickly to challenging situations in daily life. The results are in line with previous studies in the field of emerging research area of wisdom pedagogy, and they can be utilized in further development of teaching, not only in teacher education but also in other fields of higher education.

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