Media Kit
Democratic Education at Cal is a student initated program, which provides Berkeley students with the opportunity to participate in and facilitate different courses on the UCB campus.
Rather than teaching students through lecturing, democratic education creates new teacher-student relationships by actively engaging students in conversation, creating an environment which welcomes and emphasizes student participation.
DeCal values all opinions and encourages class contribution, believing that students will become more excited about their education if they feel as though they are able to contribute to it as well.
Ron Hassner, Professor of Political Science has said that he has “found the DeCal program to be one of the most exciting and educating experiences for my students on campus…The DeCals [I have been involved with] have proven a wonderful source of information for the students participating and an even better source of experience and confidence for the students leading the classes.”
DeCal provides students with an opportunity to facilitate courses of their choice, providing them with an outlet to share their knowledge and giving them a background on democratic education.
As faciliators students are empowered to share their knowledge with others and, as experts on their course, gain confidence and leadership skills through facilitation.
There are over 100 DeCal courses per semester, and while each course has a faculty sponsor they are completely student led, giving both students and facilitators an opportunity to learn in an environment that actively pursues knowledge.
To faciliate a course there are seven easy steps to follow.
- Fill out a Special Studies Course Proposal Form, which can be found online.
- Read the special studies student checklist and familarize yourself with DeCal’s policies.
- Find a faculty sponsor.
- Obtain the signature of the chair of the sponsoring professor’s department.
- Meet with the department’s course scheduler to get a classroom and Course Control Numbers and/or Course Entry Codes, access the class roster and learn the grade submission procedure.
- Turn in the Special Studies application form to the Academic Senate.
- To advertise your course on the DeCal website, turn in a copy of your Special Studies form and syllabus to the DeCal office.
To find out more information about these important steps visit our “start a course” page on the DeCal website.
The DeCal program also holds weekly startup workshops which provide students, who are interested in facilitating a course, with one-one information on how to start their course and get the most out of their experience.
All the startup workshop dates are listed on our website. Come check them out!