자연주의적 탐구조사(Naturalistic Inquiry)

In 1974 an article appeared in Science magazine with the dry-sounding title “Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases” by a pair of psychologists who were not well known outside their discipline of decision theory. In it Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman introduced the world to Prospect Theory, which mapped out how humans actually behave when faced with decisions about gains and losses, in contrast to how economists assumed that people behave. Prospect Theory turned Economics on its head by demonstrating through a series of ingenious experiments that people are much more concerned with losses than they are with gains, and that framing a choice from one perspective or the other will result in decisions that are exactly the opposite of each other, even if the outcomes are monetarily the same. Prospect Theory led cognitive psychology in a new direction that began to uncover other human biases in thinking that are probably not learned but are part of our brain’s wiring.

Thinking fast and slow.

Enchantment and Disenchantment: The Role of Community in Natural Resource Conservation

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides access to information on a variety of topics related to the environment and strives to inform citizens of health risks. The EPA also has an extensive library network that consists of 26 libraries throughout the United States, which provide access to a plethora of information to EPA employees, scientists, and researchers. The EPA implemented a reorganization project to digitize their materials so they would be more accessible to a wider range of users, but this plan was drastically accelerated when the EPA was threatened with a budget cut. It chose to close and reduce the hours and services of some of their libraries. As a result, the agency was accused of denying users the “right to know” by making information unavailable, not providing an adequate strategic plan, and discarding vital materials. This case study explores the background of the digitization project, the practices implemented, and the critiques of the project.

/pdf/the-environmental-protection-agency-3gx4opzrjm.pdf

The Environmental Protection Agency

Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace

Mobile technology is pervasive in society and in particular among young people. The use of such technology in the classroom can be controversial and case studies and data on student perceptions of the technology are rare. This study presents the results of an iPad Pilot Project sponsored by a college at mid-sized university in a rural area in the United States. The study intersects the use of the iPad in the classroom with the reinvention of liberal arts education. Using case studies and student perceptions from survey data, the study concludes that the use of the iPads in the classroom can enhance critical thinking, collaboration, and participation and that the iPads were not a distraction in the classroom.  The study details the different uses of the iPad in the classroom and how the technological use addressed several different problems raised by the use of technology.

/pdf/the-ipad-pilot-project-a-faculty-driven-effort-to-use-mobile-3wuve6kwz3.pdf

The iPad Pilot Project: A Faculty Driven Effort to Use Mobile Technology in the Reinvention of the Liberal Arts

Is the Fake News the Real News? The Significance of Stewart and Colbert on Democratic Discourse, Politics, and Policy

For those times when political science is again confronted with questions about its usefulness, we suggest that the classroom is a central arena for our discipline to reassert its relevance to the society in which we live. In particular, given the existence of our open and accessible political system, we argue that the introductory course taught as a general education requirement by nearly every political science department provides unique advantages for political science to justify itself as a relevant and necessary endeavor in comparison with most other academic disciplines. However, to truly take advantage of the unique position of political science we need to reevaluate some of our most basic assumptions about the reasons we have for teaching these introductory classes. Incorporating the latest research in teaching methods and theories of learning, we totally redesigned an introductory course from the ground up, basing this course around semester-long group projects geared towards enhancing the intern...

Introduction to American Government: What is it Good for? Absolutely Everything

Do We Understand What the Public Hears? Stakeholders’ Preferred Communication Choices for Discussing River Issues with the Public

Responding to calls for revised pedagogical strategies this article highlights the use of postmodern techniques in applied policy analysis. Focusing on the crucial role of problem definition in the Yellowstone National Park bison controversy of 1996-97, a postmodern approach is briefly examined and then applied in the form of a narrative analysis. An analysis of original survey data, newspaper articles, letters to the editors, public speeches, and public texts producedfive narratives: 1) “Hidden Agendas and Heroes,” 2) “Winter Ghost Towns and a Hobson’s Choice,” 3) “Two Goliaths and Little (David) Montana,” 4) “Blue Ribbons, a Mercy Harvest, and Anti-Recreationist Conspirators,” and 5) “Wild Bison and Wild Bureaucrats.” The article touches on language, power, democracy, and the relationship between positivism and postmodemism. It is argued that postmodem techniques can move from the realm of theory to the realm of practice and make significant contributions to applied policy analysis.

Mark K. McBeth

Papers

The iPad Pilot Project: A Faculty Driven Effort to Use Mobile Technology in the Reinvention of the Liberal Arts

Is the Fake News the Real News? The Significance of Stewart and Colbert on Democratic Discourse, Politics, and Policy

Introduction to American Government: What is it Good for? Absolutely Everything

Do We Understand What the Public Hears? Stakeholders’ Preferred Communication Choices for Discussing River Issues with the Public

Postmodern Policy Analysis in the Premodern West: Problem Definition in the Yellowstone Bison Case