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Exploring built pedagogy, one college set out to disrupt structure and create a community of research by erecting a teaching lab yurt and inviting faculty to create a cohort of action researchers teaching in the yurt. The round shape of the yurt facilitated a more democratized learning environment where students found themselves a greater part of the learning and experienced their instructors to be positioned, literally, as facilitators of learning rather than keepers of the knowledge, where student accountability was inherent and an auditory/experiential connection to the world beyond the classroom created "aliveness" in learning.

This article uses an unconventional format to problematize a common dichotomy found in the theory and practice of experiential education. The article comprises the contributions of five authors and begins with one author's description of a potential real-life scenario that provokes the question of whether an art history lecture might be understood as experiential education. Three of the remaining coauthors respond individually and independently to this question, and the final author joins with the first in the concluding comments section. The key consensus of the responding coauthors is that simplistically equating the Deweyan notion of primary experience with physical, tactile activity is a limited and limiting understanding of experience in education and that in fact, under the correct circumstances, a lecture can and even should be part of experiential education. Beyond this, the authors encourage educators to think carefully about the educational trajectory and contextual histories of the learners with whom they work. Finally, the two authors of the concluding comments suggest that the field, to do justice to the educational possibilities of all experiences, must begin to move beyond John Dewey while finding ways to overcome the deeply entrenched dualistic concept of experience that continues to affect our practices and theorizing.

The paper "Exploring Prosocial Behavior through Structured Philosophical Dialogue: A Quantitative Evaluation" ambitiously made the argument that a pedagogy grounded in dialogical inquiry as part of the Philosophy for Children program will positively affect incidents of bullying in schools. This response to the author's work includes a brief overview of her main argument and subsequent study and proceeds to suggest one possible alternative that she did not consider, namely Buber's perspective on the I-Thou relation and the potential this holds in regards to bullying. Making the argument that bullying is a normative issue stemming from how people receive each other, the response authors claim that if we met each other as we should, by identifying the other as inherently valuable and worthy of empathy, then bullying would not result. In other words, bullying is an outcome of acting as we shouldn't. Rather than focusing on responding to that action through a form of intervention, as the author did, this response emphasizes teaching children about how to better receive each other, thereby preventing bullying.

Many teachers struggle to maintain or build hope among themselves and their students in today's climate of high anxiety and low morale. This article describes and responds to those challenging conditions. It offers teachers and scholars of education a philosophically sophisticated and feasible understanding of hope. This notion of hope is grounded in pragmatism and grows out of the pragmatist commitment to meliorism. Hope is described as a way of living tied to specific contexts that brings together reflection and intelligent action alongside imagination and gratitude. Such hope is realistic and generative, rendering it well suited for teachers struggling in schools today. The article does account for some school conditions, including fatalism, passivity, and lack of persistent motivation, that pose obstacles for achieving pragmatist hope. The article closes by describing specific actions teachers can take to build and sustain hope in their schools, including developing supportive communities of inquiry, cultivating habits of hope among students, and practicing confirmation. (Contains 1 image and 1 note.)

Exploring built pedagogy, one college set out to disrupt structure and create a community of research by erecting a teaching lab yurt and inviting faculty to create a cohort of action researchers teaching in the yurt. The round shape of the yurt facilitated a more democratized learning environment where students found themselves a greater part of the learning and experienced their instructors to be positioned, literally, as facilitators of learning rather than keepers of the knowledge, where student accountability was inherent and an auditory/experiential connection to the world beyond the classroom created "aliveness" in learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smallpox vaccine diluted to a strength of 1:10 produces the same physiological response as undiluted smallpox vaccine, according to a study of 680 people. Because the supply of smallpox vaccine is limited, public health officials are considering diluting the existing vaccines so that more people can be vaccinated in the event of a bioterrorist attack.

The paper "Exploring Prosocial Behavior through Structured Philosophical Dialogue: A Quantitative Evaluation" ambitiously made the argument that a pedagogy grounded in dialogical inquiry as part of the Philosophy for Children program will positively affect incidents of bullying in schools. This response to the author's work includes a brief overview of her main argument and subsequent study and proceeds to suggest one possible alternative that she did not consider, namely Buber's perspective on the I-Thou relation and the potential this holds in regards to bullying. Making the argument that bullying is a normative issue stemming from how people receive each other, the response authors claim that if we met each other as we should, by identifying the other as inherently valuable and worthy of empathy, then bullying would not result. In other words, bullying is an outcome of acting as we shouldn't. Rather than focusing on responding to that action through a form of intervention, as the author did, this response emphasizes teaching children about how to better receive each other, thereby preventing bullying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many teachers struggle to maintain or build hope among themselves and their students in today's climate of high anxiety and low morale. This article describes and responds to those challenging conditions. It offers teachers and scholars of education a philosophically sophisticated and feasible understanding of hope. This notion of hope is grounded in pragmatism and grows out of the pragmatist commitment to meliorism. Hope is described as a way of living tied to specific contexts that brings together reflection and intelligent action alongside imagination and gratitude. Such hope is realistic and generative, rendering it well suited for teachers struggling in schools today. The article does account for some school conditions, including fatalism, passivity, and lack of persistent motivation, that pose obstacles for achieving pragmatist hope. The article closes by describing specific actions teachers can take to build and sustain hope in their schools, including developing supportive communities of inquiry, cultivating habits of hope among students, and practicing confirmation [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article responds to an issue article by scholar Kevin Currie-Knight that discusses privatization in education in relation to care ethics. Topics include the relation of transactions to interpersonal relations, decision making in school policy, and the equating of care with reciprocal relationships.