Teaching Comparative

Another academic resource

And here's another academic course web site that you might find useful.

Dr. Josip Dasovic is teaching several courses this year at the University of Richmond in Virginia, including introductory comparative politics and introduction to international relations.

His blog, Clouds, Clocks and Sitting at Tables is more than just interesting to read. I know it's only a supplement to his teaching, but for me it's a place I have learned some things and been reminded of others.

(The blog reminds me of the course diary I kept in the days before blogs, which often became the prompt for the next class. I'd reflect on what went on in class and write down those ideas that popped into my head after the fact. Sometimes those ideas were great places to begin the next day.)

One entry in Dr. Dasovic's blog for today emphasizes the realist view of Condoleeza Rice's international relations thinking. Another uses William A. Callahan's ideas as an example of constructivist theory. Yesterday, Dr. Dasovic described Lebron James' basketball behavior as an example of rational choice theory.

By now you're asking, "What about comparative politics?"

Yesterday, Dr. Dasovic prepped his class for an upcoming lesson on political economy that will compare welfare states in industrialized nations. It's the kind of lesson you could adapt for your class. (There's a historical lesson on that topic, Lesson 12: Social Welfare Policies in Western Countries, in the Center for Learning unit for AP Comparative Government and Politics.)

If you go back to his first semester entries, you'll find more things interesting and relevant to your comparative course.

The big one I've found that might be helpful is My Intro to Comparative Politics Final Exam -- Fall 2007.

This would be a great as a review exercise. Go through the questions one by one with your students. The first 20 items on Dr. Dasovic's exam are similar to the first FRQs on the AP exam.

• First ask your students which of those 20 items might legitimately appear on the AP exam and which ones wouldn't. (At first glance, I'd guess that 12 of them might be AP-like questions.)
• Then ask them why the ones that probably would not appear on the AP exam wouldn't. (Some of them ask about topics that are not even hinted at in the course outline.)
• Finally, I'd ask students to prepare rubrics for the answers to the questions that might appear on the exam. (They might have to look beyond their own text book to do that, and that would be a valuable lesson.)

The "Part A" short essays are probably not relevant to most AP courses, but they do offer an interesting glimpse of concept-based questions.

The short essay questions in "Part B" are very appropriate for the AP exam. Would your students want them revised in any way to make them more appropriate? How would they answer them? (You could ask them to write answers or rubrics for these questions.)

Remember, if you use any of his idea, thank Dr. Dasovic

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Labels: concepts, pedagogy, theory

posted by Ken Wedding @ 4:44 PM