Problem‐Based Learning (PBL) is an increasingly popular interdisciplinary pedagogy. In this chapter, we discuss its roots, benefits, and potential trade‐offs and give practical advice applicable to a variety of academic disciplines.
One of the difficulties in teaching global sustainability in the introductory political science classes is the different emphases placed on this concept and the absence of the consensus on where the overall balance between environmental protection, economic development, and social justice should reside. Like many fuzzy concepts with which students struggle, teaching sustainability lends itself to pedagogical examination within the scholarship of threshold concepts. This article investigates students' understanding of sustainability in the seven semesters when the concept of sustainability was introduced via role-playing simulation and compares it with the similar data from a more recent semester when simulation was supplemented with traditional lecture and classroom exercises. Ultimately, our research question is twofold: (1) How do students define a multifaceted concept like global sustainability and (2) what is the better way to teach it -active learning only or active learning in combination with traditional instruction?Certaines des difficultés rencontrées quand on enseigne la durabilité mondiale dans des cours de base de sciences politiques sont les divers accents mis sur ces concepts et l'absence de consensus sur la question de savoir où devrait se situer l'équilibre général entre la protection de l'environnement, le développement économique et la justice sociale. Tout comme c'est le cas avec de nombreux concepts flous qui donnent des difficultés aux étudiants, l'enseignement de la durabilité se prête à un examen pédagogique au sein de la recherche sur les concepts de seuil. Cet article se penche sur la manière dont les étudiants ont compris la durabilité pendant les sept semestres au cours desquels le concept de durabilité a été présenté par le biais de simulation de jeux de rôles et il la compare aux données semblables recueillies lors d'un semestre plus récent au cours duquel la simulation a été supplémentée par des cours magistraux traditionnels et des exercices de classe. En fin de compte, notre question de recherche est double : 1) Comment les étudiants définissent-ils un concept qui présente de nombreuses facettes tel que la durabilité mondiale, et 2) Quelle est la meilleure manière de l'enseigner -exclusivement par un apprentissage actif ou par le biais d'un apprentissage actif combiné à une instruction traditionnelle? Keywords active learning, mixed pedagogy, global sustainability, general education, threshold concepts, academic bottlenecks
Cover Page FootnoteThe research for this article was funded in part by Wisconsin Teaching Fellows and Scholars Program (WTFS). The authors are grateful for the insightful comments on the earlier drafts of this manuscript provided by several participants in the 2012-2013 WTFS program, especially Cyndi Kernahan. We would also like to acknowledge Mark Davis for his helpful literature suggestions for this article.This research paper/rapport de recherche is available in The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning:https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/c...
Why during the last decade have many young Russians become politically active well beyond simply voting? Particularly striking among youth activists is their enthusiastic support for Putinism and a resounding rejection of the policies, symbols and political figures of the era of President Boris Yeltsin (1992–2000). The vast majority of youth activists are of college age (18–24), which means they were far too young to be aware of what was happening in the country in the 1990s, the period that while democratic and pro-Western, also represents a failure of the Russian state in their imagery. To what degree do the opinions and worldviews of politically active pro-Kremlin youth reflect the recently emerged, nearly ubiquitous interpretation of recent history as presented in the high school curriculum? To that end, we undertake a content analysis of 47 high school textbooks in Russian history, followed by open-ended interviews with 37 activists from the three most visible youth organizations, all of whom are pro-Kremlin in their orientation. Although demonstrating a causal relationship is methodologically unfeasible, we find a marked correlation between the views of both the Yeltsin and Putin eras presented in those textbooks and in the political beliefs of the youth groups.
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