Active Learning across Borders: Lessons from an Interactive Workshop in Brazil

Abstract

This article reports on the results of a workshop on active teaching and learning sponsored by the Instituto de Relações Internacionais at the University of Brasilia. This 2-day, intensive workshop was designed by the authors to introduce teaching and learning strategies and to promote critical dialogue for professors and advanced students from institutions across Brazil. Details are provided on sessions that addressed the philosophy behind active teaching and learning, resources available for developing and carrying out exercises, a wide range of techniques, and the importance of debriefing and assessment. Finally, the article provides an evaluation of the workshop experience, emphasizing its potential value for training international relations instructors, both within the United States and across other international contexts, on ways to integrate active teaching and learning into their classrooms.

Evaluating Hypotheses about Active Learning

“…Since some types of active learning require substantially more, and more intensive, preparation on the instructor’s part, this suggests that balancing the time demands of preparation with competing demands has no major effect on student learning. While we do not take this to mean that simulations should be eliminated in favor of less time‐consuming pedagogical techniques, we do encourage users to think carefully about the pedagogical goals of any activity before incorporating it into the syllabus (Kille et al 2007). The use of simulations (or other intensive activities) solely for activity’s sake are not beneficial for students or instructors.…”

One World, Two Classrooms,Thirteen Days: Film as an Active-Teaching and Learning Tool in Cross-National Perspective

“…Kille, Krain, and Lantis (2008) find, contrary to Crabtree and Sapp (2004), that instructors and students in Brazil were highly receptive to a range of innovative approaches in the discipline, and discussions of how the approaches would work best within new cultural contexts proved quite enriching. Storrs (2009) and McMahon and Zou (2011) relate similar experiences regarding cross-national teaching and learning in Japan and China, respectively.…”

O Storytelling como ferramenta de aprendizado ativo

“…6 É durante o debriefing, referido na descrição da terceira etapa da aplicação da metodologia, que o aluno toma consciência e consolida a condição do aprendizado. O debriefing promove a reflexão sobre o que foi feito, dando significado e contexto ao processo de aprendizagem (KILLE; LANTIS, 2008;BLUM, 2010). A reflexão sobre o que e como se aprendeu se torna, com isso, parte integrante de todo o processo.…”