By the end of the semester, we will have read and discussed nine separate articles. The discussion strategy I use in this course was originally developed by the Great Books Foundation. It focuses discussion on answering interpretive questions . I believe that students gain a deeper understanding of articles and the economic concepts they contain when they answer interpretive questions and interact with others who are positing and revising answers to these questions. Here are definitions and examples from the article by McCulloch from our discussion of deposit insurance.
Interpretive questions ask for an interpretation of the author's meaning.
Factual questions ask for facts. Evaluative questions ask for judgements. The question should ask for more than a quotation of the author's views. It can be answered with evidence from the reading . The instructor should make sure that evidence is available in the reading.