Naslov
Special Report on Teaching Methods: Policy Possibilities for Public Discussion.

Autori
Notturno, M. and Notturno, I. (Eds), Bakaradze, E., Bezovski, Z., Grabova, P., Hasaj, A., Jurcic, A., Kalemi, M., Natsvlishvili, I., Šimić, R.

Izvornik
Special Report on Teaching Methods: Policy Possibilities for Public Discussion.

Vrsta, podvrsta
Ostale vrste radova, popularni rad

Godina
2010

Ključne riječi
teaching; methods; transition countries

Sažetak
Public policy discussions too often focus upon the specific actions that governments might take to address a problem instead of the broader conceptual possibilities that might inspire them. This is unfortunate, since the wise choice of a public policy requires an exploration of a wide range of conceptual possibilities—including the different concerns, questions, beliefs, values, goals, and interests that might motivate them. The Interactivity Foundation (IF) believes that governments too often act without considering a wide range of conceptual possibilities for public policy, and that citizen discussions of contrasting possibilities can help to improve both our public policy choices and our own ability to make them. IF thus supports discussion projects that are designed to explore, develop, articulate, and test contrasting conceptual possibilities for public policy in selected areas of concern. We believe that our discussion projects and the conceptual possibilities that we develop in them can help citizens to explore an area of concern with their neighbors and make individual choices about which policy possibilities might be worthwhile to pursue. The aim of IF is not to recommend or advocate specific policy possibilities or actions. It is to improve public policy by encouraging citizens to participate in democratic discussions about their public policy concerns—and about the different conceptual policy possibilities for addressing them. The conceptual possibilities that we present in our reports are developed by citizens in confidential ‘sanctuary’ discussions for use by their fellow citizens. We hope that they will help to stimulate and aid such discussions, and that they will provide both a starting point and a conceptual springboard for citizens who wish to explore the different policy possibilities and ends that we might want to achieve as a society. In 2010, with the support of IF, eight young teachers from Eastern Europe participated in a three month IF ‘mini-project’ in Washington, DC to explore concerns and policy possibilities about introducing new teaching methods in their home countries. Our project on Teaching Methods was conducted in cooperation with The George Washington University’s Research Program in Social and Organizational Learning, which also provided space for our discussions. Its participants included university teachers from Albania, Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, and Georgia who had come to the United States under the auspices of the United States State Department’s Junior Faculty Development Program and the Open Society Institute to learn about new teaching methods that they might use in their classes back home. These teachers met with us, both individually and as a group, for over 50 hours to explore concerns that people in their countries might have about new teaching methods, to develop conceptual policy possibilities to address them, and to learn how the IF Discussion Process might be used to facilitate student-centered discussions in their classrooms. This special report describes seven conceptual policy possibilities pertaining to the introduction of new teaching methods into their countries that the teachers explored, developed, articulated, and tested during the course of their discussions. It also describes their concerns about introducing new teaching methods in their countries ; their thoughts about the actions that might be taken to implement each of the conceptual possibilities that they developed ; and their thoughts about the practical consequences that those actions might have for individuals, groups, institutions, and society at large. It does not, however, discuss the pros and cons of any particular teaching method, or even the ways in which different teaching methods might differ. The governance concerns and policy possibilities that are described in this report might thus apply to any teaching method that people might try to introduce into a country in which university teachers are being asked to change their ways.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Ekonomija, Pedagogija

Napomena
Interactivity Foundation. Parkersburg, WV. 2010

POVEZANOST RADA