Why do we need deliberative pedagogy? The short answer is that we can’t solve complex social problems if we can’t get together and talk about them. It seems simple, right? But in our current era of political polarization and retreat into comfortable, familiar...
I want to start my blog by stating that I have really benefited from reading the blogs and email messages my fellow IFers have been sending. It is nice to know that others are also struggling with issues of evaluating student learning, group management and...
There’s a lot of talk these days—as there’s always been—about reforming higher education. One of the more popular ideas getting a lot of play is that doing away with the disciplines will fix what’s wrong with the system. The disciplines are maligned for being...
The Perspectives articles exploring IF in the classroom have, thus far, largely articulated the benefits of our student-centered approach on student learning, interaction, retention, and skill development (leadership, communication, etc.). It is important that we...
Earlier last year, I came across a striking passage in a book on how computer “games” should be re-shaping education. One needn’t be familiar with the specifics of the game mentioned in the passage’s first sentence to follow the author’s thinking. However, it is...
Now that it's been well over a month since my last post, it's hard to know how to sum up all the things that have happened. I'll start at the conclusion: Thursday was the last day of my IF course. All 15 of our first-year seminars are invited to participate in...
If you have not been to a university campus since the 1960s or 1970s, you might be surprised to find how similar the classroom environment is to that which you might remember from forty or more years ago. While technology has transformed the average classroom into...
Since my last post, several things have happened. My students finished their first round of discussions, so everyone has tried their hand at facilitating. It went reasonably well, although I'm changing some small things to make the next round better. I also had...
My students re-grouped this week to work on the school presentation. They rallied into four teams according to their interests: rap song, a skid, a short video, activity to engage the target audience (8th graders!) I asked the class to use an IF-like process during...
After reading Maria's recent post about what she will do next with her IF class now that they are not in their original groups, I realize that I feel I'm at a bit of a crossroads with my class as well. Tomorrow is our last small group discussion on the question...