guidelines for class discussion 

In order to have productive discussions in class, it's useful to have clear guidelines for the leaders and the participants in the class discussion.

goals:

overall: to gain a more thorough understanding of the issues in sustainable development through:

• a comparative study of resource areas (fisheries, biodiversity, soils)
• an integration of natural science approaches and social science approaches. More specifically, we examine each resource on four dimensions: 1) the temporal and spatial scales of depletion and renewability; 2) the issues of valuation of the resource and its components; 3) the property regimes and forms of ownership of the resource; 4) the social and political systems (from communities to international organizations) that establish rules and structure the debate for the use of the resource. 
• a broad consideration of management programs. More specifically, we examine four types of programs: 1) technological innovations; 2) economically-oriented policies and programs; 3) socially-oriented processes and forms of participation; 4) forms of addressing root causes of over-exploitation of resources. 

concrete: to use class meetings and on-line resources (e-mail, course website) effectively through:

• class time focused on discussion-and-exchange format.  
• some portion of the class time will have small-group format, but most will be of the class as a whole. 

phases: the course is divided into three sections:

• weeks 1-3. introduction, overview and general discussion of sustainable development
• weeks 4-9. discussion of the three resource areas (fisheries, biodiversity, soils). Two weeks will be allocated to each resource area. The first week will focus on natural science questions (resource history, depletion, renewability) and valuation; the second week will focus on social science questions (property regimes and policy frameworks).    
• week 10.   summary and synthesis

general guidelines:

• the class meetings will focus strongly on the readings. all students will be expected to come to class having read all the readings.
• most discussions will be led by students, with some assistance from the instructor.
• the students in each of the three resource groups will meet in advance to plan how they will divide up the leading of the class discussions for which they are responsible. 

specific guidelines:

These guidelines reflect the division of the course into three phases:

• weeks 1-3. introduction. The class will begin to organize itself. Students in the class will send 2-3 questions based on the week's readings that they would like to see discussed in class, no later than 5 PM on the Tuesday preceding the class. The instructor will gather and organize these questions, and prepare a list of 5-8 key questions to structure the class discussion. For these first weeks, students may break into small groups as well.

• weeks 4-9. discussion of the three resource areas (fisheries, biodiversity, soils). Two weeks will be allocated to each resource area. The first week will focus on natural science questions (resource history, depletion, renewability), as well as valuation; the second week will focus on social science questions (property regimes and policy frameworks).   

  Students from the resource group under consideration will take responsibility for structuring  the discussion. For each week, they will e-mail to the class list a statement (250-400 words) summarizing the key issues for the readings in that week, no later than 5 PM on the Monday preceding the class meeting. Students in the class will respond by emailing them 2-3 questions that they would like to see discussed, no later than 5 PM on the Wednesday preceding the class. The students in the resource group will gather and organize these questions, and prepare a list of 5-8 key questions to structure the class discussion. The students in the group will lead the discussion, jointly with the instructor. 

• week 10.   summary and synthesis. We'll plan as a group to decide how we want to handle this final meeting.