Teaching and Assessing Oral Skills as Democratic Practice

Politics ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 197-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Stafford
Keyword(s):  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Assessment Feedback ◽  
A Value ◽  
Democratic Practice ◽  
Ideal Speech Situation ◽  
Political Studies ◽  
Oral Skills ◽  
Speech Situation ◽  
The Ideal

Teaching and assessing oral skills is important, but relatively novel in the discipline of Political Studies; this article defends the practice, and outlines the ‘nuts and bolts’ of one methodology for doing it. Preliminary explanation in lectures, practice in seminars, assessment, feedback and self-assessment are all covered and the paperwork illustrated. The methodology is based in part on Habermas's theory of ‘communicative competence’ and the ‘ideal speech situation’; it therefore implies and imparts the values of respect, equality, democracy and consensus. It is suggested that a value-free approach to the teaching of oral skills is impossible.

Negotiating Ethics as a Two Level Debate

1998 ◽  
pp. 254-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert van Es
Keyword(s):  
Human Behavior ◽  
Moral Behavior ◽  
Discourse Ethic ◽  
Moral Agents ◽  
Ideal Speech Situation ◽  
Moral Debate ◽  
Common Understanding ◽  
Speech Situation ◽  
The Ideal

As a form of moral debate, discourse ethic, according to Habermas, is based on regulated discussion. Participating moral agents share a common understanding in the ideal speech situation. Following procedures they try to reach consensus on questions of justice and rights. Critics of discourse ethic point to the bias of Western assumptions regarding agents and methods, the danger of elitism, and the optimism and the pacifism that run through the theory. After modification, Habermas distinguishes two types of discourse: the discourse of justification and the discourse of application. The second is inferior to the first. In the second, there is room for negotiating. There is another way of looking at negotiation, one that takes negotiating seriously as an important category of human behavior. This category shows an interesting overlap with moral behavior. Distinguishing four concepts of negotiating and using reciprocity and trust as the moral minimum, Negotiating Ethics is presented as a two level moral debate, close to Habermas but morally different in essential aspects.

scholarly journals Talking about the likelihood of risks: an agent-based simulation of discussion processes in risk workshops

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Clemens Harten ◽  
Matthias Meyer ◽  
Lucia Bellora-Bienengräber
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Information Transfer ◽  
Risk Assessments ◽  
Interaction Patterns ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Ideal Speech Situation ◽  
Group Characteristics ◽  
Speech Situation ◽  
The Ideal

Purpose This paper aims to explore drivers of the effectiveness of risk assessments in risk workshops. Design/methodology/approach This study uses an agent-based model to simulate risk assessments in risk workshops. Combining the notions of transactive memory and the ideal speech situation, this study establishes a risk assessment benchmark and then investigates real-world deviations from this benchmark. Specifically, this study models limits to information transfer, incomplete discussions and potentially detrimental group characteristics, as well as interaction patterns. Findings First, limits to information transfer among workshop participants can prevent a correct consensus. Second, increasing the required number of stable discussion rounds before an assessment improves the correct assessment of high but not low likelihood risks. Third, while theoretically advantageous group characteristics are associated with the highest assessment correctness for all risks, theoretically detrimental group characteristics are associated with the highest assessment correctness for high likelihood risks. Fourth, prioritizing participants who are particularly concerned about the risk leads to the highest level of correctness. Originality/value This study shows that by increasing the duration of simulated risk workshops, the assessments change – as a rule – from underestimating to overestimating risks, unraveling a trade-off for risk workshop facilitators. Methodologically, this approach overcomes limitations of prior research, specifically the lack of an assessment and process benchmark, the inability to disentangle multiple effects and the difficulty of capturing individual cognitive processes.

scholarly journals The Persuasiveness of a Message and the Problem of Legitimacy

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 59-73
Author(s):  
Rafał Leśniczak
Keyword(s):  
Public Discourse ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Jürgen Habermas ◽  
The Public ◽  
Jurgen Habermas ◽  
Ideal Speech Situation ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Silvio Berlusconi ◽  
Speech Situation ◽  
The Ideal

The author analyses several selected speeches of Italian politicians: the founder of the Forza Italia party, Silvio Berlusconi; the founder and leader of the Five Stars Movement, Beppe Grillo; and the current Prime Minister of Italy, Matteo Renzi. The study makes it possible to evaluate whether the conditions for the ideale Sprechsituation (the ideal speech situation) of Jürgen Habermas are fulfilled in analysing the public discourse. Particular attention will be given to the relationship between the persuasiveness of the communication and the problem of legitimacy.

Interview with Jürgen Habermas

2018 ◽  
pp. 870-882
Author(s):  
Jürgen Habermas
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Process ◽  
Jürgen Habermas ◽  
Deliberative Process ◽  
Jurgen Habermas ◽  
Ideal Speech Situation ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Speech Situation ◽  
The Ideal

This interview with Jürgen Habermas covers a number of crucial and hotly debated topics in deliberative democracy—such as the role of the ideal speech situation, the role of (rational) consensus, and the possibility of deliberation in the strategic realm of politics and in deeply divided societies. In addition, it sets outs his assessment of current developments in deliberative theory—such as the contribution of narratives, emotions and rhetorics to the deliberative process and the role of self-interest and bargaining in deliberation. Jürgen Habermas presents an integrative and optimistic vision of the deliberative program, stressing the importance of a systemic and long-term approach where the democratic process “as a whole is filtered through deliberation”.

NEUROTIC SYMPTOMATICS RELATED TO PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS IN YOUTH

2019 ◽  
pp. 2014-2019
Author(s):  
Milen Dimov
Keyword(s):  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Responsiveness ◽  
Training Process ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
School Year ◽  
Real Behavior ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
The Ideal

The present study traces the dynamics of personal characteristics in youth and the manifested neurotic symptoms in the training process. These facts are the reason for the low levels of school results in the context of the existing theoretical statements of the problem and the empirical research conducted among the trained teenagers. We suggest that the indicators of neurotic symptomatology in youth – aggression, anxiety, and neuroticism, are the most demonstrated, compared to the other studied indicators of neurotic symptomatology. Studies have proved that there is a difference in the act of neurotic symptoms when tested in different situations, both in terms of expression and content. At the beginning of the school year, neurotic symptoms, more demonstrated in some aspects of aggressiveness, while at the end of school year, psychotism is more demonstrated. The presented summarized results indicate that at the beginning of the school year, neurotic symptoms are strongly associated with aggression. There is a tendency towards a lower level of social responsiveness, both in the self-assessment of real behavior and in the ideal “I”-image of students in the last year of their studies. The neurotic symptomatology, more demonstrated due to specific conditions in the life of young people and in relation to the characteristics of age.

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