I am currently taking a special topics course on Citizenship Learning, Participatory Democracy, and Social Change. Even before starting the course, I knew I would be able to link much of what is studied in the class to things I… Read More »
Category Archives: Education
Democratic Deliberations and Self-Interest
Also posted in Perspectives Tagged attitude, citizen discussions, communication skills, deliberation, facilitation Comments closed
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Public Discussion of Possible Practical Consequences—Testing*
A third alternative to thinking about public discussion as debate or as the immediate prelude to decision-making is to understand it as a means of testing contrasting conceptual possibilities. Testing of contrasting conceptual possibilities—whether these have been developed in sanctuary… Read More »
Also posted in Perspectives Tagged choice, consequences, prediction, public discussion, statistics, testing Comments closed
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Scheduling a Student Discussion using Doodle
As I was digging through old posts, I would like to add my thoughts to the topic “setting up student discussions” 18 months ago. I am particularly going to recommend the website www.doodle.com… Read More » for scheduling.
Scheduling an event and selecting
Posted in Education Tagged citizen discussions, Classroom Discussions, communication skills, facilitation, Project Discussions, recruiting, student-centered discussion Comments closed
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Public Discussion of Contrasting Conceptual Possibilities*
IF’s public discussions typically move from exploration of an area of concern to exploring and developing contrasting conceptual possibilities for addressing it.
The purposes of exploring and developing contrasting conceptual possibilities. Public discussion of contrasting conceptual possibilities serves the immediate… Read More »
Public Discussion of an Area of Concern*
Citizen dialogue and decision-making processes can take many forms, depending on the objectives of participants, their place in the policy-making process, and the constraints within which they are working. Still, citizen dialogue continues to be thought of almost exclusively in… Read More »
The Uses of Humor in the IF Discussion Process
IF discussions are serious business. But they still allow room for humor. In fact, the more of them I facilitate, the more I’ve come to appreciate the many ways humor can promote good exploratory discussion. (Surely humor can go wrong… Read More »
“Testing” in the IF Discussion Process: Consequences, Values and Purposes
IF’s Citizen Discussion Reports call on participants in public discussions to “test” conceptual possibilities by exploring their consequences. But this does mean that other considerations are irrelevant to testing.
Consider “values,” for instance. IF founder Jay Stern found it… Read More »
Language and Public Discussion*
I want to use this entry as a way of thinking about and using language in public discussion.
Philosophers, social thinkers, and cognitive scientists of various kinds have long argued hotly about the origin and nature of language. But “ultimate”… Read More »
Convergence as an Alternative Approach to Decision-Making in IF Sanctuary Projects*
As the sanctuary discussions that generate IF Citizen Discussion Reports move along, they rely on two distinctive, if not unique, decision-making processes. The first is to preserve any possibility as long as even one discussion participant wants to report it… Read More »
Also posted in Perspectives Tagged consensus, interactivity, sanctuary discussions Comments closed
Student-Centered Discussion in the Far East
In December I traveled to Japan, Singapore, and China, exploring possibilities for IF-styled discussions on Asian settings. In Japan, I spoke with one faculty member who teaches at a very large and esteemed private university in Tokyo and another that… Read More »
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