A Primer on Problem-Based Learning for International Relations Courses

In recent years advocates of educational reform have encouraged and demanded changes in public education at all levels. A teaching method called active learning addresses many such concerns, promising several advantages to both teachers and students. One version of active learning is called problem-based learning (PBL). PBL is a pedagogically sound, scholastically beneficial, and socially desirable response to concerns about educational reform. According to recent research, PBL is the most effective technique for students to learn, apply, integrate, and retain information. Many students also prefer to learn in this style. Many teachers will find PBL a valuable alternative to current teaching practices. This essay is a brief primer on PBL techniques and resources. Abridged sections survey the structure and process of PBL, discuss the role of teacher as facilitator, describe PBL 'in action' in my courses, and address implementation.     

Capacity building for adaptive management: a problem-based learning approach

As natural-resource issues become more complex, particularly in developing-world contexts, there is a growing need for adaptive management solutions. However, the skills necessary to deal with these increasingly complex situations are not always present in many low-income countries. There is also a growing recognition that many capacity-building activities are limited in their effectiveness. This article suggests a problem-based learning (PBL) approach to capacity building. Using the example of training courses developed to help natural-resource management in Guyana, this article illustrates how PBL can help to enhance the capabilities needed for adaptive management.     

Engaging International Data in the Classroom: Using the ICB Interactive Data Library to Teach Conflict and Crisis Analysis

The challenges of teaching quantitative research methods in international relations are well documented. The key to igniting interest and engaging students lies in creating a participatory learning environment in the classroom. This article discusses these challenges and describes a new piece of software that may be helpful in that regard. The ICB Interactive Data Library , or the ICB Library for short, enhances access to the information available in the ICB data by organizing it into an interactive software package (Brecher, Hewitt, and Wilkenfeld, 2000). The ICB Library is an especially valuable teaching tool because it allows students to easily access the resources from a major data collection project which, in turn, exposes them to the challenges and opportunities offered by quantitative research in international relations. After describing the ICB Library , this article will discuss how it can be used in the classroom via problem-based learning techniques.     

Ripening Within? Strategies Used by Rebel Negotiators to End Ethnic War

This article explores what strategies rebels use to prepare their ethnic community for negotiated peace. Proposed strategies are distilled from relevant theory and systematically investigated in case analyses of peace negotiations in Sri Lanka, Indonesian Aceh, and Senegal. The empirical findings indicate that although a coercive military capacity underpinned claims to ethnic representation, coercion did not dominate during the prenegotiation phase. During negotiations, noncoercive persuasion, as well as collective and selective incentives, clearly dominated. Moreover, the most important measures were internal to the negotiating rebel group. The successful rebel negotiator appeared to “mobilize in reverse” by initially targeting the core of military leaders followed by competitor groups and constituents. The article systematically examines across cases what measures rebel negotiators have used to “ripen” their own community, how these measures have been sequenced, and against whom they have been directed. The findings have important implications for the concepts of ripeness and prenegotiation and their requirements. The study underscores in particular the relevance of rebels' nonviolent commitment signals, something that has been largely overlooked in the research on nonstate armed actors. The policy implications suggest the possible benefits of third‐party assistance to efforts to promote communication, public outreach, and procedural transparency on the nonstate side in connection with peace talks.     

Treading on Tradition: Approaches to Teaching International Relations to the Nontraditional Undergraduate

Nontraditional undergraduates (NTUs), undergraduates who typically are older than average, work full-time, and/or are entrusted with substantial family responsibilities, pose a special challenge to international relations educators. Severe constraints on time and access to library facilities both impede progress and may give an erroneous impression that NTUs are not as committed to their education as more conventional college undergraduates. The lack of continuity in education that typifies the NTU experience often manifests itself in anxiety, frustration, and gaps in fundamental knowledge. At the same time, the maturity and sophistication that come with life experience often far exceed that of the more conventional college student. Furthermore, typical requirements of international relations and international studies majors, such as second and third language proficiency, internships with international organizations, and overseas study are often not feasible for the working student with family responsibilities. Possibilities for meeting the challenges of teaching NTUs include greater use of open-book examinations, research proposals, case studies, simulations, problem-based learning (PBL), use of the Internet, and the development of short-term intensive overseas study opportunities that accommodate the working student's schedule.     

'New learning in old organisations': Children's participation in a school-based nutrition project in western Kenya

The integration of learning into community development processes and how that learning can stimulate positive change pose challenges that development practitioners have met with mixed success. Who the most effective change agents are, how they can be supported, and how their efforts can be diffused in the community and scaled up are key questions in the community development literature. The authors designed and implemented an action-research project in western Kenya on traditional vegetables, recruiting pupils as co-researchers. The purpose of the research was two-fold. One goal was to explore the feasibility of increasing the intake of traditional vegetables through a school-based horticulture programme. The other was to increase pupils' competence as effective change agents by empowering them in culturally compatible ways. The results offer lessons for practitioners regarding creative means to identify and empower change agents within traditional organisations and encourage innovative creation and diffusion of knowledge.     

Making the organisation learn: Demystification and management action

The learning organisation (LO) is both a concept and a particular methodology within the larger domain of organisational development (OD). To fully appreciate the premises of LO, it is necessary to fall back on the main premises of OD, beginning with the view of the organisation as an open system. Many of the established concepts of systems science as applied to organisational systems--such as system robustness, system intelligence, and system proactivity-- have a direct bearing on the capacity for continuous learning in the organisation. Moving on from concepts to action, an organisation needs a set of working practices to acquire the characteristics of a learning organisation. One particularly useful 'gateway' for the LO process is a comprehensive performance management system that compels the organisation's membership to re-examine ideas of performance and the assumptions about organisational processes underlying management practices. The gateway follows the action-research paradigm and appears well suited to non-profit development NGOs.     

Threshold Concepts Through Enactive Learning: How Effective Are They in the Study of European Politics?

Studying European Politics can be a challenge! And this is not surprising: even the best scholarly minds of European politics often struggle to give precise definition to such a young, but already so complex and constantly evolving polity as the European Union, and are increasingly at odds with identifying its prospects for survival. One way to achieve a better understanding of the subject is to utilize a threshold concept approach, which is essentially a "less is more" approach that chooses to work with a few "founding" concepts, and identifies a "road map" for independent learning of broader but essentially inter-connected issues of the discipline. The threshold concept approach becomes even more effective if combined with enactive learning—that is, learning-by-doing, through role taking and simulation of the threshold concepts during seminars. Such learning evidently exceeds the boundaries of conventional knowledge and becomes a useful transferable investment for the future.     

South African news in international radio broadcasting: a comparative analysis

SUMMARY

This is a comparative content analysis, over a five year period from 1987 to 1991, of the coverage of South African news in international radio broadcasting, specifically Voice of America, Radio Moscow and Radio RSA. This study takes as its point of departure the premise that different ideologies produce differing concepts of news, and this in turn will produce differing images of South Africa in that news. As there is no suitable theory to explain the findings of this study, a triadic model of international radio broadcasting news has been constructed, based on a Three World's taxonomy. This study establishes the importance of South Africa to international radio news, the topics covered, and determines the trends and differences in that coverage over the study period. These findings are discussed in terms of ideologically determined news values.     

Transformative learning and mind-change in rural Afghanistan

This article presents the results of a quantitative/qualitative enquiry into ‘transformative learning’ and ‘mind-change’ dynamics among rural community representatives participating in the Government of Afghanistan's National Solidarity Program [NSP]: a community-driven, nationwide initiative to rehabilitate the country's infrastructure. Drawing on frameworks for ‘transformative learning’ proposed by Mezirow (1990) and Freire (1993), and ‘mind-change’ proposed by Gardner (2004), it is argued that NSP catalysed transformative development learning through (1) its responsiveness to the expressed needs and interests of project participants; (2) engagement of community representatives as active development partners; (3) delegation of project-management responsibility throughout all stages; (4) provision of social space for reflection and critical analysis; (5) opportunities to achieve project outcomes that are meaningful, attractive, and profitable; and (6) programme features compatible with the social and cultural realities of rural Afghanistan.     

Learning from complexity: The International Development Research Centre's experience with Outcome Mapping

This paper introduces the major concepts of Outcome Mapping and discusses the International Development Research Centre's experience in developing and implementing Outcome Mapping with Northern and Southern research organisations. It explores how the fundamental principles of Outcome Mapping relate to organisational learning principles and the challenges associated with applying theory to practice. It presents cases where planning, monitoring, and evaluation processes have been used to encourage learning and improvement, and discusses the potential of Outcome Mapping as a tool for evaluative thinking to build learning into development programmes.     

Accepting Conflict and Experiencing Creativity: Teaching "Concertation" Using La Francilienne CD-ROM

This article discusses the use of the La Francilienne CD-ROM, which I developed with my colleague Alain Lempereur, law professor at ESSEC Business School, near Paris. As a professor in the ESSEC Department of Environment, I use the CD-ROM as the basic tool for my course "Concertation, Decision, and Local Democracy." The CD-ROM's simulation of a public negotiation process for a highway project allows me not only to teach basic concepts and methods of negotiation and mediation but also to enhance two important concepts in public decision processes in planning and environment: conflicts and creativity. The students are given the opportunity first to experience, and then to discuss, conflict and creativity in a quasi-real setting. These experiences and discussions encourage an internal change process for the students and help them to integrate the negotiation and mediation concepts and methods taught. This internal change will be conceptualized in this article according to two educational theories: transitional thinking theory and experiential learning theory.     

Modelling learning programmes

This brief paper describes one attempt to update the programme logic models to incorporate organisational learning. It begins with a brief review of learning concepts, describes the traditional Logical Framework Analysis, and concludes with a sketch of an alternative programme model, entitled the Temporal Logic Model.     

中国特色大国外交的时代特色（英文）

Following the trends of the times is the most distinctive feature of China's majorcountry diplomacy. Having introduced the concepts of a new type of international relations featuring win-win cooperation and a community of shared future for mankind, China's diplomacy has attracted attention from and been welcomed by the international community.     

Learning leaders: The key to learning organisations

Learning and knowledge management are crucial capacities for many NGOs. This article attempts to answer such questions as: why is learning seen as so important for NGOs? How do successful NGOs actually learn? And what role do key individuals or leaders play in this process? The article draws heavily on the findings of a study of South Asian NGOs, which suggests that an NGO's ability to learn is dependent on its organisational culture and in particular the development of an internal culture of learning. The case studies from South Asia reveal that the creation of this 'learning culture' derives primarily from the attitude of the leadership towards learning: at the heart of a learning organisation is a 'learning leader'.     

"Who Are You Wearing?" Using the Red Carpet Question Pedagogically

This paper presents an active learning module design and implementation strategy for use in an undergraduate course on globalization, world politics, international political economy, or international relations. Students are first asked to conduct research on their wardrobe and its origins by country, allowing for classroom discussion of research methods and designs. Results are submitted, along with a short response essay. This is evaluated in conjunction with a case-study short reading and shared discussion, followed by a short video/multimedia presentation on free trade and labor issues. Drawing on literature on active learning, I argue that this presents a more cohesive approach for engaging students in the material on a substantive level, while at the same time allowing them to actively appreciate and understand such diverse concepts as commodity chains, free trade zones, fair trade versus free trade, gendered divisions of labor, consumer responsibility, research methodologies, and macroeconomic shifts in employment across nations. This also serves as a rubric for instructors to use in creating their own topical "modules." Preliminary data and classroom results are discussed, as are additional strategies for lesson development.     

Critical success factors in telecentre sustainability: a case study of six telecentres in the Limpopo Province

Abstract

Access to Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) is regarded by the South African government as vital in improving the quality of life in rural areas. To this effect, the Universal Service Agency (USA), a statutory body established in terms of the Telecommunications Act, 1996, (Act 103 of 1996), is charged with the responsibility of spear-heading universal service by rolling out ICT services in rural areas. This article is based on the researchers' experiences and findings of the study commissioned by the USA and funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The study investigated the operations and effectiveness of six telecentres in Limpopo (formerly known as the Northern Province), with a view to determining critical success factors which make telecentres sustainable. Critical success factors which consistently make a telecentre sustainable are identified and explored. These are inter alia, determination of the need for a telecentre in the ear-marked area, community support, continuous training for telecentre managers, sound management skills and a vigorous marketing strategy. This article intends to create a learning system for other telecentres elsewhere, to enhance their sustainability.     

What Can Be Done to Internationalize Teacher Training? A Research Report on the Undergraduate Training of Secondary School Teachers

Editor's Introduction : The following excerpted report discusses the interaction of the international studies field and teacher education programs at colleges and universities around the country. The reform of teacher education in whatever substantive area is a topic at the forefront of initiatives from the federal government in Washington, DC, as well as ones from private foundations. One such initiative has recently been launched by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and is called Teachers for a New Era (TNE). Linking 11 universities across the country, TNE can be viewed as an innovative attempt to better integrate the content education provided by colleges of arts and sciences with the pedagogical knowledge resident in schools of education. The ultimate aim is to impact student learning by producing better classroom teachers nation-wide. The following article engages many of these same topics as they relate to the international studies education. The Editors hope that you will find the article thought-provoking, and we invite comments and responses from members of the ISA community.