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Project

The effect of active learning environments on students' situational interest. A quasi-experimental study of simulations in political science curricula.

Academic teaching in political science has been increasingly changing from more teacher-centered towards more student-centered teaching. This trend entails the increasing use of active learning environments such as simulations which challenge students to deal critically with various aspects of decision-making, the content of policies, and the interactions between multiple actors and levels. Advocates of active teaching methods make a number of claims about the effects on learning results and dimensions of affective learning. However, substantive evidence of the effects is up to now rather anecdotal and methodologically poor, sometimes even contradictory.Hence, the main aim of this project is to investigate the effect of simulations of decision-making on one of the most important affective components of student learning: student's situational interest. The latter has been shown to be triggered by factors in the learning environment and an important predictor of academic performance. We start from the assumption that variation in active-learning environments will have an impact on students' situational interest. The research questions in this project therefore deal with how simulations influence situational interest of students. Do simulations of decision-making enhance student's situational interest? How does situational interest develop during a simulation of decision-making? Which conditions make simulations of decision-making more or less effective? What are the prohibiting and stimulating factors? Methodologically the project uses a quasi-experimental study in an ecological valid setting combining repeated measurement survey data with qualitative data from interviews and focus groups with students. We will collect unique data in a treatment condition as well as in a control condition. The intervention condition comprises several samples that are readily available as the main promotor of the team is involved in several national and international simulation projects.The design allows for innovation in terms of methods (quasi-experimental setting), empirics (unique data), multi-disciplinary approach (nexus between political sciences and educational sciences) and implementation (improving the effectiveness of simulations as a teaching tool).
Date:1 Oct 2015 →  30 Sep 2019
Keywords:POWERFUL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS, SIMULATIONS, LEARNING EFFECTIVENESS, DECISION MAKING
Disciplines:Other economics and business, Education curriculum, Education systems, General pedagogical and educational sciences, Specialist studies in education, Other pedagogical and educational sciences, Citizenship, immigration and political inequality, International and comparative politics, Multilevel governance, National politics, Political behaviour, Political organisations and institutions, Political theory and methodology, Public administration, Other political science