The Socratic method, as practiced, is not just asking questions — it's asking questions designed to reveal a contradiction the interlocutor hasn't noticed.
The structure: (1) elicit a confident claim, (2) draw out its implications, (3) produce a case where the implications conflict with another claim the person also holds, (4) sit with the discomfort.
The discomfort is the point. Genuine learning often requires first becoming genuinely confused. Students who avoid confusion avoid learning.
The method works poorly in large groups (too many students, too few Socrates), with traumatized learners (the technique resembles interrogation), and when the teacher uses it to display superiority rather than induce discovery.