This new publication, titled Deliberation in the Classroom: Fostering Critical Thinking, Community, and Citizenship in Schools, was written by Stacie Molnar-Main and published by the Kettering Foundation and is now available to order.

The following is excerpted from the webpage describing the book:

From the first appearance of the National Issues Forums in 1982, teachers have recognized the usefulness of both the NIF issue guides and the process of framing issues for deliberation as models for the role and work of citizens in a democracy. In 2006, the foundation began a series of learning exchanges—known as Teaching with Deliberation—with teachers interested in using deliberation with their students. Those learning exchanges, and the reports teachers and administrators produced over the past ten years, helped identify the key benefits and challenges teachers experienced when introducing deliberative practices into their classrooms and documented teachers’ observations about the impact deliberation had on their students’ sense of themselves as democratic citizens...

Chapters in the book include an introduction to deliberation in the classroom, discussions on engaging and mentoring citizen-students, a description of the use of historic decision guides in an elementary school, and an overview of the role of teacher institutes that offer professional development in deliberation. The book also includes an afterword by Kettering Foundation president David Mathews.  

Click here to read more and to order the book.