UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN INDIANA
Honors Program
HONS 101.001
Issues for the 21st Century
Spring 2007
M 1200n-1250p OC 2024
Dane M. Partridge, Ph.D.
OC 3066C
465-7085
465-1044 (fax)
dpartrid@usi.edu
http://business.usi.edu/dpartrid/
Office Hours:
TR 1030-1145a
R 430-545p
and by appt.
INTRODUCTION
This course is designed to build skills in applied critical thinking and to foster a sense of
community among the honors students at USI. To this effect, we will use the work of the
Kettering Foundation and the National Issues Forums (nonpartisan groups that study
ways in which individuals and communities develop the capabilities needed for
effective public deliberation). The basic premise of the National Issues Forums is that if
American democracy is to fulfill its promise, citizens must take responsibility and act
together, to make choices about how they want their government to function; the
objective is to create a public voice that determines public policy.
Students will encounter problem-solving situations in small groups guided by a discussion
leader whose role is to facilitate the learning process by asking questions and
moderating the discussion. Each student will be expected to draw upon the
knowledge in his or her discipline and share that knowledge with the larger group. In
this manner, different perspectives on an issue are introduced, leading students to ask
new questions and increase their understanding of the situation. In addition, students
will learn a great deal about their own learning styles and will internalize the critical
thinking strategies required for leadership positions in the twenty-first century.
Many of the complex public problems we confront seem ill-structured; accordingly,
students are encouraged to develop the ability to confront ambiguous, ill-defined
situations, to analyze and define the issues involved, and to develop the ability to ask
the appropriate questions and obtain the needed information to address those
problems. Many entering college students (even some Honors students!) bring into the
classroom a naïve understanding of education as merely the acquisition of true facts.
With little understanding of the complexity and contextual basis of all knowledge, they
tend to regard questions that don’t have clear right and wrong answers as totally
subjective and all opinions as equally valid. Deliberative discourse such as we will use in
this course should lead to a deeper understanding of why we must evaluate others’
reasoning and our own (i.e., moving “beyond feelings”) (adapted from Jim Knauer,
retired Professor of Political Science and Honors Director, Lock Haven University of
Pennsylvania).
READINGS
Students should obtain the following books:
Vincent Ryan Ruggiero, Beyond Feelings:
(McGraw-Hill, 2004).
A Guide to Critical Thinking.
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Americans’ Role in the World: Building a More Secure Future (National Issues
Forum Institute, 2006). Available as a free download from
http://www.nifi.org/stream_document.aspx?rID=7054&catID=6&itemID=7052&typ
eID=8 (1497 K)
Democracy’s Challenge: Reclaiming the Public Role (National Issues Forum
Institute, 2006). Available as a free download from
http://www.nifi.org/stream_document.aspx?rID=6047&catID=6&itemID=6041&typ
eID=8 (1447k)
Copies of the text should be available for purchase in the Bookstore. Any other assigned
readings will be available on the instructor’s website or from the Rice Library online
databases. Supplements to the course outline and reading assignments may be
distributed during the semester.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS, METHODS OF EVALUATION, AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Your grade will be determined by your willingness to participate in class discussion.
Consequently, attendance and class preparation are very important. Approximately
once a month, I will collect your writing journals. A typical submission might consist of
several brief in-class responses in which you reflect on the progress your group is making
in its deliberations, your own contributions to the discussion, and the role played by the
other group members, and/or several out-of-class responses to questions which I will
assign each week. These responses typically need not exceed one typed page.
Please be reminded that while this course provides one credit hour of academic credit,
it provides three hours of Honors credit toward the 21 hours minimum needed to
complete the Honors Program. Therefore, the workload for this course may be
somewhat greater than for a typical one hour course.
Four journal submissions (meetings 4, 7, 11, and 14)
Active participation
400 points
100 points
500 points possible
450-500=A, 425-450=B+, etc.
Students are encouraged to stop in during office hours to talk about any problems or
suggestions you may have concerning the course, or just about the Honors Program or
things in general. If the scheduled office hours are inconvenient feel free to make an
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appointment. To underscore the value of office hours each student will be expected to
meet briefly with Dr. Partridge early in the semester.
To facilitate electronic
communication, students are requested to schedule this initial appointment via e-mail.
Please be reminded that USI provides free e-mail for students through MyUSI. The
University routinely uses this USI e-mail account for both formal and informal
communications with students. Students are expected to check their USI e-mail
account regularly for University correspondence. If you prefer to use an e-mail account
other than the one provided you by USI, you should forward your USI e-mail to the
account you use most often.
A NOTE ON DELIBERATIVE FORUMS
In previous semesters students have reported that they greatly enjoyed the small group
discussions in this course (although some also indicate they have been previously
exposed to the critical thinking material in high school). The most frequently expressed
concern has been that students didn’t know, early in the semester, enough about
deliberative forums. A deliberative forum is a moderated discussion, not a debate, “…
a process through which people talk with one another about public issues that concern
them….”
The purpose of [a deliberative forum] is for citizens to make, or at least
work toward, a decision about how they will act on a problem or what
policy they think is best for their community. Deliberation is weighing the
costs and consequences of a variety of possible actions…. Deliberation
doesn’t result in absolute agreement, but it can reveal the general
direction in which people want to move, the range of approaches to a
problem that would be acceptable, and what people are or are not
willing to do to solve a problem (Kettering Foundation, National Issues
Forums, 1999, emphasis added).
Research indicates that public deliberation has an impact. “Not only does it change
the way individuals understand an issue, it changes the way people talk with each
other, and it improves a community’s ability to deal with its issues, concerns, and
problems.” In short, deliberation is applied critical thinking, a process through which
communities can more effectively address 21st century issues…
WHAT (SOME) PREVIOUS STUDENTS HAVE LIKED LEAST…

“The journals”
o Students are assigned journal entries, primarily Applications from the
Beyond Feelings book, so as to provide an opportunity to apply concepts
pertaining to critical thinking.
THE INSTRUCTOR
DANE M. PARTRIDGE -- Associate Professor of Management; Director, Honors Program;
B.A., Public Policy Studies, Michigan State University; M.S., Industrial and Labor Relations,
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Cornell University; Ph.D., Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University. Dr. Partridge's
primary teaching and research interests involve human resource management and labor
relations. Current research areas include the effect of pay structures on worker attitudes
and gender differences in perceptions of sexual harassment. Dr. Partridge has also
taught at Virginia Tech, Radford University, and Roanoke College, and has received
several awards for teaching excellence.
TENTATIVE SCHEDULE AND READING ASSIGNMENTS
Meeting 1 (1/8):
Introductions -- about groups and individuals (Who are you?)
 Ruggiero, ch.1, esp. pp. 10-11.
Meeting 2 (1/22):
What is critical thinking?
 R. ch. 2, esp. pp. 16-18.
Framing the Issue
 R. ch. 16.
Americans’ Role in the World
-- Introduction (sharing of experiences and views related to
issue)
Meeting 3 (1/29):
What is truth and what is knowledge?
 R. chs. 3 and 4, esp. pp. 34-35, 42-43.
Americans’ Role in the World
-- Approach 1: Preserving and Sharing Global Resources
Meeting 4 (2/5):
Forming sound opinions
 R. chs. 5 and 6.
Americans’ Role in the World
-- Approach 2: Seeking Security through Free Trade
Meeting 5 (2/12):
Strategies for critical thinking: Knowing Yourself, Conducting
Inquiry, Forming a Judgment
 R. chs. 14, 17, 18.
Americans’ Role in the World
-- Approach 3: Promoting Democratization and Human Rights
Meeting 6 (2/19):
What is truth, revisited…
Americans’ Role in the World
-- Approach 4: Using Military Power to Secure the Peace
Meeting 7 (2/26):
What is knowledge, revisited…
Democracy’s Challenge
-- Introduction
Meeting 8 (3/12):
Forming Sound Opinions, revisited…
Democracy’s Challenge
-- Approach 1: Rebuilding democracy’s moral foundation
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Meeting 9 (3/19):
What is Argument?
 R. ch. 7.
Democracy’s Challenge
-- Approach 2: Reinventing citizenship
Meeting 10 (3/26):
The Pitfalls. The Basic Problem: “Mine Is Better”
 R. ch. 8.
 Student groups will lead discussion re: chs. 9-12, Errors of
Perspective, Procedure, Expression, Reaction.
Meeting 11 (4/2):
The Errors in Combination
 R. ch. 13.
Democracy’s Challenge
-- Approach 3: Bringing the public back into politics
Meeting 12 (4/9):
Being Observant
 R. ch. 15.
Democracy’s Challenge
-- Reflections: Tensions and Tradeoffs?
Meeting 13 (4/16):
Persuading Others
 R. ch. 19.
Democracy’s Challenge
-- Reflections: Common ground for action?
Meeting 14 (4/23):
Democracy’s Challenge
-- Reflections: What have we learned?
Meeting 15 (5/4):
Semester Review (note that this meeting is scheduled to be held
during the final exam period for the course; other arrangements
may be made)
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