International Studies Compendium Project

Extract

Comment on this article   Best practices in teaching about the global political economy (GPE) differ little from best practices in teaching and learning period. Consistently, research demonstrates that the most effective learning takes place when students are actively engaged in a subject matter that is meaningful and relevant to them ( Dewey 1933 ; Pullias and Young 1969 ; Kraft 1978 ; Kolb 1984 ; Brown, Collins and Duguid 1989 ; Boehrer 1990–1 ; Christensen, Garvin, and Sweet 1991 ; Menges and Weimer 1995 ; Lantis, Kuzma and Boehrer 2000 ; Hakel and Halpern 2002 ; McKeachie and Svinicki 2005 ; Baxter Magolda 2006, 2008 ). This chapter borrows from the innovative faculty around the world, who responded to a query about their favorite and most effective pedagogy, assignment, and assessment instrument in their teaching of GPE (see Appendix A for a copy of the query sent; see Acknowledgments for a list of faculty respondents). The chapter explores pedagogies beyond “the lecture” – not because lecturing is inherently bad or because it has lost its intrinsic value in conveying information via great storytelling. Certainly faculty, religious leaders, and politicians captivate audiences with spellbinding and effective speeches quite regularly; Tal Ben-Shahar (Harvard's “positive psychology” phenomenon of the decade), Martin Luther King, William Sloan Coffin, and Franklin ... log in or subscribe to read full text