Some subscribers to TeamLearning might be interested in a recent post "Re: Castles in the Sky #2," [Hake (2009)]. The abstract reads: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ ABSTRACT: H.G. Callaway, in his Dewey-L post "Castles in the Sky" referred to an article reporting that Alan Greenspan had defended his record as Fed Chairman and stated that "speculative excess" is inevitable in long periods of prosperity. Callaway then suggested that "the answer to excessive speculation is empiricism and the introduction of a more scientific attitude. Surely, the attitude of the scientific thinker, the orientation to facts, experiment and attempts at falsification is important in our attempts to control the excesses of philosophical speculation and the related tendency toward, let us say, 'castles in the sky'." But philosophers are not the only ones who build "castles in the sky." The sky castle building of traditional economists such as Alan Greenspan and Lawrence Summers, who seem to regard the economic system as divorced from the ecosystem, has been roundly criticized by ecological economists such as Herman Daly. Mihai Sarbu, in response to Callaway, opined that " 'castles in the sky' could be a timely conversation topic, given the seriousness of the current environmental challenges and the upcoming meeting in Copenhagen: how can John Dewey's theory of inquiry be applied to educating for ecological responsibility?" I think education in Dewey's inquiry mode plus e.g., Daly & Townsend's "Valuing The Earth: Economics, Ecology, Ethics," and Tim Jackson's "Prosperity without Growth: Economics for a Finite Planet" might help. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ What's all this got to do with Team-Based Learning? A. In my opinion, team-based learning might be relatively effective in awakening the boatload to oblivion (see the signature quote). To access the complete 19 kB post please click on <http://tinyurl.com/yjtasfm>. Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University 24245 Hatteras Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367 Honorary Member, Curmudgeon Lodge of Deventer, The Netherlands. <[log in to unmask]> <http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/> <http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi/> <http://HakesEdStuff.blogspot.com/> REFERENCES Hake, R.R. 2009. "Re: Castles in the Sky #2," online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at <http://tinyurl.com/yjtasfm>. Post of 28 Nov 2009 11:42:22-0800 to AERA-L, Dewey-L, Net-Gold, Phys-L, and PhysLrnR. The abstract only is being sent to several discussion lists. "The global society, and particularly the US, is like a small boatload of people about to enter a long stretch of white water and rapids. For the foreseeable future we will be totally preoccupied with immediate problems and far too distracted to develop and implement a rational long term plan. Eventually, after climate change, fossil fuel depletion, and several other manifestations of the growth limits have produced some new sort of semi stable state, with a MUCH lower population and material standard of living, our species will hopefully be able to start identifying, choosing, and pursuing its longer term options. I do not expect to be alive when that time comes." Dennis Meadows, private communication of 17 November 2009 to R.R. Hake, quoted by permission.