April 26, 2011 What’s “Practical” about IF Discussions—And What’s Not* People unfamiliar with IF sometimes ask if our “conceptual” discussions are at all “practical.” The answer isn’t straightforward. One could say that they’re practical “in the Aristotelian sense” or that...
April 26, 2011 Sanctuary Discussion* At the mention of “citizen discussion,” we tend to conjure up images of rapid-fire, heated exchanges between partisans, often in the glare of the media spotlight. Haste, partisan heat, and...
March 14, 2011 On Wisconsin At its best, democracy isn't just "rule by the people" or even "rule of, by, and for the people." It's rule by people who listen to each other. Wisconsin's Republican leadership...
March 10, 2011 A Brief Description of the Interactivity Foundation Discussion Process* As our catalogue of “Perspectives” grows, it’s probably useful to reconsider from time to time some of the basics of the IF process. That’s what I want to do here,...
February 3, 2011 Extending the Student-Centered Approach to Public Discussions IF’s approach to classroom discussion is “student-centered” both in the sense that students do the facilitating and in the sense that students shoulder much of the responsibility for shaping the...
January 18, 2011 The IF Method in a science course Human Health and the Environment is a course offered in the Biology Department for science credit that integrates concepts in ecology and public health through the study of environmental threats...
January 18, 2011 Engaging Abstract Topics Environmental public health issues are general perceived by most Americans as abstract, because few people suffer the direct consequences of environmental degradation. To combat ambivalence over abstract topics, I have...
January 17, 2011 How have your group dynamics been working? As I mentioned in my first blog, I had to reshuffle the groups largely based upon a comment made by one very high achieving senior male student who half heartedly...
January 17, 2011 Blog Prompt #1: How are you setting up student groups in your IF class? Organization of Student Led Discussions (SLDs) I had 16 students in my Human Health and the Environment course, most of whom were either seniors or juniors and therefore exhibited greater confidence...