Model United Nations and Deep Learning: Theoretical and Professional Learning

This article demonstrates that the purposeful subject design, incorporating a Model United Nations (MUN), facilitated deep learning and professional skills attainment in the field of International Relations. Deep learning was promoted in subject design by linking learning objectives to Anderson and Krathwohl’s (2001 Anderson, Lorin W., and David R. Krathwohl (eds.). 2001. A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York: Longman. [Google Scholar]) four levels of knowledge or cognition: factual, conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive. Students demonstrated improvement in all four areas; however, this article focuses on outcomes in the conceptual and metacognitive realms as these were where students showed the most growth. In the conceptual realm, the subject aimed to increase students’ capacity to apply international relations theories. Students tended to utilize the traditional theories of realism and liberalism; however, their explanations and applications of these theories showed deep learning. In the metacognitive realm, students were able to analyze their own negotiation styles and to explain how it influenced their approach to the Model UN, thus demonstrating strong professional skills development and metacognitive growth. Learning was enhanced by the use of open access online subject materials and online communications. The subject was designed and run in a context where simulations in teaching politics and international relations are not common.     

A visualization approach to prioritizing insurance claims from complex,multi-PRP Superfund sites

Abstract

The severity of environmental insurance claims related to large multi-PRP Superfund sites has grown over the last 30?years. When an insured files a Superfund-related claim, allocated costs to the insured are typically unknown. Assessing the insured’s likely share of future cleanup costs is challenging. This article proposes a simple approach that allows claims professionals to visualize where their insured stands relative to other PRPs' potential allocation of cleanup costs. The resulting color-coded “heat map” allows claims professionals to easily assess and prioritize potential insured losses. It also provides a starting point for settlement negotiations, thus reducing frictional costs.     

The broken bridge of public finance: majority rule,earmarked taxes and social engineering

Public Choice - A theoretically grounded approach to causal questions illuminates both the utility and limitations of the potential outcomes (PO) framework as a model for historically-focused,...     

贵阳市“临摊”安置研究

＂临摊＂安置不仅仅是一个技巧性的管理问题,更是一个复杂的社会问题,关乎党和政府的形象、百姓对政府的满意度及和谐贵阳的构建。妥善安置＂临摊＂是贵阳市2010年＂三创一办＂工作的一大重要任务。＂临摊＂治理亟待构建政府主导,社会合作、协同共管的三维治理模式,最终实现＂临摊＂治理的法治化、摊贩管理的科学化以及城管执法的人性化,实现＂临摊＂的善治。     

Rent-seeking in the classroom and textbooks: Where are we after 50 years?

In this paper, we provide an overview of the influence of Tullock’s work on rent-seeking in the area of economics education. After summarizing the basic rent-seeking model in both a domestic and international context, we conduct an analysis of undergraduate and graduate textbooks in public economics. We find a majority of undergraduate texts cover rent-seeking in depth, but two texts provide zero coverage. No graduate textbook surveyed mentions rent-seeking. We conclude by summarizing the economic education literature on rent-seeking, which can be divided into either classroom experiments or popular culture examples.

     

Liberal collectivism and national economic policy

The subtlety of contemporary philosophical reflection, proclaimed and magisterially displayed in Gillian Rose's The Broken Middle, is an effect of postmodern challenge, rather than inner tendency of modern thought; above all, this applies to the acceptance of inherent ambiguity of ‘:the middle’ - the space where possibility is recast into actuality, and hence of the infinity of philosophy's task. ‘The middle’, though already structured by the law (the ethical codification of morality), was through modern times the locale of moral solitude: what was determined was inescapability of choice. ‘The middle’ has been ‘broken’ - a site of freedom/ unfreedom, uncertainty/determination - from the start, yet the recognition of its nature has been hard earned mostly through the experience of persons/ categories refused or refusing ‘assimilation’ into the Law modernity stood for; what is called ‘postmodern condition’ is the universalization of that experience. Universalized, this experience is increasingly wary of the two most tried modern attempts to ‘repair’ ‘the middle’ - through the ‘general will’ or through the escape into privatized self.