The deliberation that I facilitated was entitled, “Should Standardized Test Be Put to Rest?”. There have been many issues about the tests being unfair or the tests being more strategy based than knowledge based.  In our deliberation we go through the different solutions that could fix this issue about standardized tests. Our three approaches were time constraints, making all colleges make standardized testing optional to students, and standardizing exam reviews.  I believe we had good and strong approaches to deliberate about the controversy on standardized tests.

 

The deliberation that I was a participant in was entitled, “How Can We Change the Perception that Penn State is Simply a “Party School”, expressing how Penn State is overseen as a party school which affects and overshadows major accomplishments such as the schools academics, alumni network etc. The deliberation considered different ideas and ways to show the value of Penn State’s academics over party culture. In the beginning of the deliberation they asked the participants to brainstorm different ideas that we could use as approaches. The three approaches that we found were the use of social media, Greek life and academics. I was a little confused because they did not have approaches set up already, they made the participants come up with the ideas. At the end of the deliberation I came to only find that the only good approach presented was the use of social media playing a role in changing the perception that Penn State is a “Party School”.

 

 

A big difference was the set-up of each of the deliberations. With my deliberation we set up the chairs and formed a big circle. Everyone was able to be involved deliberating about the same approach at the same time. I found this way more effective because it was a bigger, more open discussion. The deliberation I participated in was divided into three groups and worked as a rotation where each approach was timed and moved to each group. I did not find this effective because the groups were very small, only having a few people to deliberate with. Also, with there being other groups around me, I would sometimes be distracted by the other groups talking next to me.