Teaching political science research methods in Hungary: transferring student-centred teaching practices into a subject-focused academic culture

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Simon, E. ORCID: 0000-0002-1174-8650, 2014. Teaching political science research methods in Hungary: transferring student-centred teaching practices into a subject-focused academic culture. European Political Science, 13 (1), pp. 78-95. ISSN 1680-4333

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Official URL: http://doi.org/10.1057/eps.2013.43

Abstract

This article discusses the challenges of moving towards student-centredness in East-Central Europe through the example of Hungary’s subject-focused academic culture and the (re-)design of a political science research methods course at the University of Szeged for Spring 2012. Although countries participating in the Bologna Process undersigned the importance of student-centredness, few countries have actually yet moved in this direction. In addition, we know very little about how these instructional methods work outside the Western democratic context. I show that research into teaching is an important means to improve the process of education and that there are specific problems in transferring student-centredness into post-Communist higher education settings. Finally, I argue that knowing one’s teaching context is vital for planning student-centred courses effectively, which would be greatly fostered by experiencing other teaching contexts through early-career teacher exchanges. The European Commission has recently affirmed its commitment to staff exchanges, but such opportunities are only likely to be beneficial if they go beyond the current 6-week long exchange scheme that the Erasmus programme offers.

Item Type:

Journal article

Publication Title:

European Political Science

Creators:

Simon, E.

Publisher:

Palgrave Macmillan

Date:

2014

Volume:

Number: