Active and Experiential Learning in European Studies: The Pressures and Demands of Today’s Educational Landscape

Van Dyke, Gretchen J. (2015) Active and Experiential Learning in European Studies: The Pressures and Demands of Today’s Educational Landscape. [Conference Proceedings] (Submitted)

Microsoft Word - Submitted Version Download (45Kb)

Abstract

Introduction: European Studies educators on both sides of the Atlantic exercise the art of teaching in an era of ever increasing pressures. It is difficult enough trying to helping the European or American student—let alone the average American or European Union citizen—understand the theory and practice of European integration and the European Union. Yet today those of us in European Studies are asked to do more than simply help our students grow in their cognitive understanding of the European Union. In the broader milieu of American and European higher education, educators have been urged to take up the cause of civic education, as part of clarion call to increase life-long civic engagement and to refocus on the very nature of one’s identity as a citizen. This challenge becomes that much more nuanced if one also considers the ever increasing demands placed on institutions of higher learning by official accrediting bodies, by governments that face pressures because of the rising cost of higher education, by governing elites, scholars, and scholarly organizations that press for more effective civic education, and especially by parents and students who today frequently view themselves as consumers in the exceedingly competitive higher education marketplace. As such pressures continue to escalate, higher education administrators and faculty in Europe and America alike have pursued new strategies and tactics to ensure a student-centered learning experience, in which varied learning styles become foundational in the development of learning goals and objectives, and, thus, positive learning outcomes for students. European Studies educators have not been immune from the pressure to move from passive to active learning, precisely because the former focused almost entirely on the efficiency of classroom instruction while the latter turns its attention to the effectiveness of methods of student learning. It is within this context that today’s European Studies educators must continue to pursue their craft.

Actions (login required)