The DCI is supporting the development of courses that incorporate deliberation on challenging but important issues. These courses include both writing courses and policy-related courses that incorporate opportunities for students to improve their skills in deliberation and practice engaging with one another on difficult topics.
In the spring of 2020, five Davidson courses, including three writing courses, piloted the incorporation of deliberation more directly into their syllabi. In 2021, the DCI launched the Deliberative Pedagogy (DeeP) Collaborative, a community of faculty members dedicated to learning about and utilizing innovative ways that foster productive deliberation in their courses. More information about DeeP can be found on the DCI’s Deliberation Across the Curriculum Program page.
Since 2021 a wide range of deliberative courses have been developed since the launch of the Collaborative — over 60 professors from 28 institutions have systematically embedded deliberation into at least one of their courses. Check out the blog posts that these faculty members have written about these courses on the DCI Blog listed below.
A Case for Deliberation in the Natural Sciences
Teaching Students to Navigate Public Health’s Toughest Conversations
Deliberation and Role-Play as Tools to Foster Engagement, Civility, and Thought (in Spanish!)
Deliberative Dialogue: A Lesson on Assumptions
Deep in the Heart of a Municipal Election in Texas
Voice, Identity, and Self: The Value of Dialogue in the Writing Classroom
Reimagining an Upper-level Biology Course Through Deliberation
Can We Talk About That?: Deliberation About Controversial Topics
